REtools partition

You might look through the link, it discusses repairing or resizing a Recovery partition due to the recent update.  If you have questions about what they are doing, let us know.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/kb5028997-instructions-to-manually-resize-your-partition-to-install-the-winre-update-400faa27-9343-461c-ada9-24c8229763bf

Thanks.  Yes, that page has been read, and the Recovery partition resized to 850.

What's missing is the Dell Window RE *tools* partition, which seems irretrievable.

Is it really needed or can other means accomplish what it does?  Other PC's don't have this 'tools' partition, which hints that this is simply a Dell convenience tool??

And if it is needed on the Dell laptop, how can it be installed?

The reference shows, after recreating a Windows tools partition, the reagentc /info command is supposed to replace the winre.wim file.  I was not aware it could do that but it does seem to imply it does.

Maybe start by running and and copy and pasting the results of the reagentc /info command done in an Admin command prompt.  Then attach a picture of your Disk Management window.

Remember, we're talking about the WinREtools partition, not the recovery partition, which is good.  The underlying mystery here is whether this is truly needed on the Dell laptop, to recover from an inoperable OS...considering that other machines do not have the 'tools' partition.  Perhaps it's just Dell utility, in lieu of typical MS restoration methods??

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19045.3930]
(c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>reagentc /info
Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) and system reset configuration
Information:

    Windows RE status:         Enabled
    Windows RE location:       \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition3\Recovery\WindowsRE
    Boot Configuration Data (BCD) identifier: 6765db61-0415-11e9-9e6c-f04b6ba4e841
    Recovery image location:
    Recovery image index:      0
    Custom image location:
    Custom image index:        0

If you are referring to the small partition put on the drive by Dell, you will probably need a downloadable factory image you can use to reinstall.  It may take more than just the image in order to set up the Dell boot diagnostics for the system.

Do you see such an image download available for your system?  I will check but I will need the full model number and you may also need your Service Tag, which you do not make public.

You are likely correct about the factory image, though that's not something worth doing as it wipes out the existing set up.  Most Dell utils were deleted from this box many years ago.

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000176966/reset-or-reinstall-windows-10-on-your-dell-computer

refers to the process.

Have the feeling that the 'tools' partition is not needed, but looking for confirmation on this Inspiron 11 3148, in the event of failure.

The article above has the user pointing to the Dell back up.  But a system restore file may do that job as well, if it's available via MS restoration methods, as would be used on PCs lacking the Dell partition.  A restore point reinstall was successful here.

Appreciated the follow up.

The best way to back up a system is to use a System image.  There are third party vendors that offer such a thing.  

With the image, you can install a new drive and recover the image to the drive and it is just like the one which was imaged.  I pretty much still use the Windows 7 version but others would rather use another version from a third party vendor.

A Windows recovery drive will pretty much take it back to factory settings (without pre-loaded software), except it will use the updated Windows version on the system at the time it was created, by making an on-the-fly OS image.  If the last partition was there, it would contain an image to restore the pre-loaded stuff.

Yes, an image is used on the desktop, but not on this old laptop due to storage limits and other factors.

Thanks for the info.