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MikeLabatt's avatar
MikeLabatt
Brass Contributor
Dec 03, 2023
Solved

ReFS volume inaccessible after update from Windows 10 22H2 to Windows 11 23H2

The starting point of this post was an up-to-date Windows 10 22H2 system, with two mirrored Storage Spaces (one NTFS, the other ReFS).   ReFS always was officially supported in this scenario, as th...
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  • MikeLabatt's avatar
    MikeLabatt
    Feb 06, 2024

    Since opening this thread in December, I'd like to share two "solutions" (workarounds):

    1) As mentioned before, I attached the ReFS 3.4 volume which wouldn't read on Windows 11, to a Windows Server 2022 system, which auto-updated it to ReFS 3.7. Moving the disks back to the Windows 11 system, I can confirm that they now work fine. Storage Spaces on Windows 11 prompted to upgrade the pool, but the data was readable both before and after this upgrade. The ReFS version remained unchanged at 3.7. This solution does not require purchasing new disks, but it does require access to a Windows Server 2022 system.


    2) The other method is to get new disks and copy the data, using an OS version like Windows 10, which can read the ReFS 3.4 volume which became unreadable after the upgrade to Windows 11.

MikeLabatt's avatar
MikeLabatt
Brass Contributor
Dec 14, 2023
There is a terse "ReFS 3.10 is no longer compatible with ReFS 3.4." comment at https://gist.github.com/0xbadfca11/da0598e47dd643d933dc

Could this be our scenario (if it means that 3.4 has been dumped from the latest Windows 11/Server 2022), and if so why is it not documented anywhere?

Per the original post, I am unable to mount a 3.4 volume (which mounts fine on Windows 10) after an upgrade to Windows 11, and it seems like this is not an isolated case.

Because I saw it mentioned in the linked GitHub post, I'd like to add that the affected system does not have RefsDisableVolumeUpgrade set. The volume also is not read-only.

Thanks stephc_msft RajDas_FS