Windows Could Not Find the Recovery Environment [Fixed]

A lot of the time, we will recommend that Windows 10 users use the reset or refresh option as a last resort for troubleshooting tricky issues that aren’t responding to other solutions. But, what happens if you go to reset and get the error, “could not find the recovery environment,” and it tells you to insert a Windows installation media disk or recovery media to restart your PC? Essentially, this means that without the installation media disk, you’re stuck and will not be able to finish refreshing your PC as you won’t have any access to your advanced troubleshooting options. Read on to find out what causes this error, and 5 solutions for fixing it.

What Causes the “Could Not Find the Recovery Environment” Error?

The most common cause behind this error is if the Windows Recovery Environment becomes disabled for some reason, or if the WinRE image is missing or corrupted. This error can also occur if the recovery partition itself has become damaged or corrupted in some way, as the WinRE file is located on this partition.

5 Solutions to Use to Fix the Could Not Find the Recovery Environment Error

If you were planning on resetting or refreshing your computer because it is slow or because you are trying to troubleshoot another error, then you’ll be able to complete the solutions below in the order that they appear.

However, if you do not have access to Windows at all (meaning you can’t even boot up), you will need to jump to solution three and create a Windows media installation disk using another computer.

Solution 1: Activate Windows Recovery Environment Using Command Prompt.

The first step you should take if you have access to your Windows desktop, is to find out if the Windows Recovery Environment is indeed active or not. If it is disabled, then this is the reason you are getting the, “could not find the recovery environment” error. To check the status of your Windows Recovery Environment, do the following:

1. In your computer’s search menu (Start/Taskbar), search for “Command Prompt”. You can also find it by typing in “CMD”.
2. Right-click the Command Prompt app in the best results section.
3. Choose to run the program as an administrator.

4. When prompted to run with admin privileges, choose yes.
5. In the Command Prompt window, type in: “Reagentc /info”
6. Hit Enter.

Now look for the Windows RE Status Line under the information section. If it says that the status is disabled, you need to enable it.

To do this:

1. Exit out of the Command Prompt window and re-run it as an administrator.
2. In the Command Prompt window, type in: “Reagentc /enable”
3. Press Enter.

Once the operation is successful, you can exit the Command Prompt and carry about with resetting or refreshing your PC.

Solution 2: Check If Windows Recovery Environment is Corrupted or Missing.

If your Windows Recovery Environment is enabled already and you are still getting the error, “could not find the recovery environment,” then you need to check to see if the WinRE is corrupted or missing entirely. To do this, you need to find out if the WinRE location is a valid one. To do this, you need to know what directory your WinRE file should be on (it’s C: for most people) and use a Command Prompt line.

1. In your computer’s search menu (Start/Taskbar), search for “Command Prompt”.
2. Right-click the Command Prompt app in the best results section.
3. Choose to run the program as an administrator.
4. When prompted to run with admin privileges, choose yes.
5. In the Command Prompt window, type in: “dir /a /s c:\winre.wim”
6. Hit Enter.

7. If the location is valid, run “reagentc /setreimage /path C:\Recovery\WindowsRE” to specify the recovery environment location.

You will need to change the path of the recovery location if your WinRE.wim file is stored on another drive. For instance, if your file is stored on the D: drive, then you will need to use the following commands: “dir /a /s d:\winre.wim” [Enter] and then: “reagentc /setreimage /path D:\Recovery\WindowsRE” [Enter].

If your Winre.wim file is corrupted, then you will need to copy the Winre.wim file from another computer that is using the same Windows version as yours and then set the reimage pathway using the second command listed in the instructions above. If you are handy enough and don’t mind searching around, the Windows Install.esd file can be extracted to get your Winre.wim file.

Solution 3: Create a Windows 10 Media Creation Tool.

If you are getting the, “could not find the Recovery Environment” error and your Windows media installation disk is broken, lost, or you just simply do not have one, you can fix the error by creating a new one and running the creation tool.

1. Grab an empty USB thumb drive with at least 8GB of space on it.
2. Make sure it has no information/data on it.
3. Grab a working computer and insert the USB into a USB port.
4. Head to the Download Media Creation Tool here.
5. Click the Download Tool Now button under Create Windows 10 Installation Media.

6. Save the file to your computer instead of running it.

7. Head to the downloads section of your computer and right-click the newly downloaded file.
8. Choose to run it as an administrator and follow the on-screen instructions to install it to your USB stick.

9. Reboot your computer and head into your BIOS (repeatedly press F2, F12, ESC, DEL – depending on your manufacturer – on boot up).
10. Change the “boot order” to the USB stick.
11. Exit your BIOS and allow the computer to boot up.
12. In the Window that boots up, choose to Repair your computer – Troubleshoot – Reset this PC.
13. Choose to keep your files or remove them for a fresh installation.
    Warning: Choosing “remove files” mean that all the data that you have stored on the OS partition will be irrecoverably deleted.
14. Run a fresh installation and follow the on-screen prompts.

In running a fresh installation like this, the Windows Recovery Environment will be repaired and you will no longer get the “could not find the Recovery Environment” error. Just make sure to switch your boot order back to where you installed Windows 10, in your BIOS.

Solution 4: Use System Restore.

If you know that the Windows Recovery Environment was working on a previous state of Windows and you created a restore point from that era, you can always use the restore point to navigate around the “could not find Windows Recovery Environment” error. Windows also creates automatic restore points before key updates, so it’s worth taking a look at what restore point options are available.

1. In your computer’s search menu (Start/Taskbar), search for “Control Panel”.
2. Under the best match, choose the Control Panel app.

3. In the Control Panel, type in “Recovery” in the top right-hand search box.
4. Choose Recovery from the list.

5. Now click on Open System Restore and hit Next.
6. Select the “Show more restore points” option at the bottom for more options to choose from.
7. From the list, choose which restore point you would like to use.
8. Hit Next and then Finish.
9. Once the restore has finished successfully, head to your computer’s Settings.
10. Once in Settings, go to Update and Security, then Recovery, and click Reset this PC.

In doing this, you will be able to restore your Windows Recovery Environment by resetting your PC.

Solution 5: Delete Any Corrupted Recovery Partitions.

If your recovery partition becomes corrupted, this can result in you getting the “could not find the Recovery Windows Environment” as the WinRE.wim file is stored on this partition.

If you are unsure of which partition is your recovery partition, open up the Disk Management Utility and locate the partition that is marked as the recovery. It will have a corresponding number that you will need for the instructions below.

Once you have your recovery partition’s disk and partition numbers, simply delete the corrupted partition by following the steps below:

1. In your computer’s search menu (Start/Taskbar), search for “Command Prompt”.
2. Right-click the Command Prompt app in the best results section.
3. Choose to run the program as an administrator.
4. In the Command Prompt window, type in: “diskpart” [Enter].

What this does is allow you to run and execute diskpart commands for dealing with disk management issues.

Run the following commands in order:

1. “list disk” [Enter].
2. “Diskpart> select disk [X]”
   (replace [X ]with the letter of the disk that your recovery partition is on) and hit Enter.
3. “list partition” [Enter] – this pulls up a list of all partitions.
4. “select partition [Y]”
   (change [Y] to the number of your recovery partition) and hit Enter.
5. “delete partition override” [Enter].

Once you’ve deleted the corrupted recovery partition, try resetting your PC again.

Wrapping It Up

That’s it! Let us know in the comments below if any of these solutions worked for you!