System image backup fails after you upgrade to Windows 8.1 or Windows Server 2012 R2

Temporarily disable WinRE when taking a system image backup

1. Right-click the Start button, and then click Command Prompt (Admin) to open an elevated Command Prompt window.
2. Disable WinRE by running the following command:

   reagentc /disable 

3. Run the system image backup function.
4. Enable WinRE by running the following command:

   reagentc /enable 

Manually re-create the WinRE partition

1. Right-click the Start button, and then click Command Prompt (Admin) to open an elevated Command Prompt window.
2. Disable WinRE by running the following command:

   reagentc /disable 

3. Start DiskPart by running the following command:

   diskpart 

4. To obtain summary information about each disk in the computer, run the following commands, and then select a disk:

   list disk
   Select disk 0 

5. From the "list partition" output, find the Recovery partition, and then note the current size of the partition.
   
   If there are multiple Recovery partitions, select the one that comes after drive C from Disk Management.
   

   DISKPART> list partition
   
   Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset
   -------------  ----------------  -------  -------
   Partition 1    Recovery           300 MB  1024 KB
   Partition 2    System             100 MB   301 MB
   Partition 3    Reserved           128 MB   401 MB
   Partition 4    Primary            885 GB   529 MB 

6. To delete the partition, run the following commands:

   select partition 1
   delete partition override 

7. Right-click the Start button, and then click Disk Management.
8. Find the unallocated partition, and reduce the volume before it by 100 megabytes (MB) so that you have a free block that is 100 MB larger than the original recovery partition. If there is no volume before the free block, reduce any volume by 100 MB plus the original Recovery partition size. For example, reduce a volume by 400 MB in the earlier example. For more information about how to shrink a basic volume, go to the following Microsoft TechNet website: 
   Shrink a Basic Volume
9. Right-click the unallocated partition, and then click New Simple Volume.
10. Continue through the steps in the wizard, using the default settings, to create the new partition.
11. To copy the WinRE image to the partition and enable WinRE, run the following commands: 

    mkdir  G:\Recovery\WindowsRE
    xcopy /h C:\Windows\System32\Recovery\Winre.wim G:\Recovery\WindowsRE
    reagentc /setreimage /path G:\Recovery\WindowsRE /target C:\Windows
    reagentc /enable
    del /a  C:\Windows\System32\Recovery\Winre.wim 

    Note Inthese commands, it’s assumed that the new partition is assigned the letter G.
12. To remove the drive letter and mark the partition as a recovery partition by using DiskPart, run the following commands:
    
    • For UEFI systems

      select disk 0
      select partition 1
      remove
      set id=de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac
      gpt attributes=0x8000000000000001 

    • For BIOS systems

      select disk 0
      select partition 1
      set id=27
      remove 

13. Exit DiskPart.