How to edit the files in the boot / system partitions?

See the image there. How can you access the file systems of the first two partitions on that disk? I want to add files to the recovery environment, but you can't do anything with those partitions in Windows (can't assign drive letters or anything).

The Recovery Environment is in the Recovery Partition (450MB): WinRE.wim (hidden)This file is built based on the WinPE which contains 2 executables:
recenv.exe(Recovery Environment) and startrep.exe (Startup repair)

To access it, you'd need to usediskpart command to assign a letter, change the attribute to unhidden on WinRE.wim , copy it to another folder or desktop, mount it, modify it and copy back.

You can assign drive letters using the DISKPART commands but be very careful about modifying these partitions. You can use MiniTool Partition Wizard to explore the contents of these partitions.

DISKPART example commands:

1. Open Elevated Command Prompt.
   
2. Type: DISKPART
   
3. At the DISKPART prompt, type: list volume
   
4. Make note of the number of the simple volume whose drive letter you want to assign, change, or remove.
   
5. At the DISKPART prompt, type: select volume n where n is the volume's number, whose drive letter you want to assign, change, or remove.
   
6. At the DISKPART prompt, type assign letter=Lwhere L is the drive letter you want to assign or change.
   
7. Copy the files you need using Windows Explorer to access the drive
   
8. To remove the drive letter type remove letter=L

Thanks for the replies. What about the Bitlocker Recovery environment? When you choose 'more recovery options' and it boots you straight into an admin CMD window, with an X: drive that has a Windows folder with loads of utils (including Regedit, etc)?

So after mounting it with Diskpart, it won't even let me enter the Recovery folder. Even after trying to change the owner / permissions.

Are you logged on as Administrator?

I'd be wary of changing permission on these special partitions until you receive more advice on the Forum.

Why do you want to change this partition anyway?

The folder structure of the Recovery Partition is ahown below:


When you are in the Recovery Environment, WinPE is loaded into RAM, the folder structure looks the same as Windows under X: ie. Windows, System32 and includes limited set of commands such as regedit.exe etc...

I want to know: 1) Can I add tools to the Recovery Environment and 2) Can I remove the Recovery Environment completely (bearing in mind, this is a Bitlocker-protected OS).

The former because I'm interested in adding functionality to the RE, and the latter because in one specific case, I want to prevent a user from using the Bitlocker RE to subvert the Windows security (you can re-enable the local admin account, for instance, even without any credentials).

Thankyou all for your help - I have tested, and I can both add apps to the Winre.wim, or cripple the RE by removing cmd.exe.

Thanks!