Forum Discussion
ReFS volume inaccessible after update from Windows 10 22H2 to Windows 11 23H2
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.
Update... Out of curiosity, I attached the same ReFS 3.4 (mirrored storage space) volume which won't mount on Windows 11 (but works fine on Windows 10), to a Windows Server 2022 system. Not only it mounts fine, but it auto-updated to ReFS 3.7 (per fsutil fsinfo refsinfo x:)
Right now I can't power off the Windows 11 box to see if the disks mount fine there as well after the update to 3.7, but I will post an update. There is some hope that the updated volume can now be seen by Windows 11 without requiring the lengthy copy process. Still a waste of money and time on new disks and troubleshooting before Christmas, while there has been no official answer here in more than two weeks...
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.
I made the mistake of upgrading the *storage pool* in Windows 11, BEFORE connecting the drives to Windows Server 2022 to try to upgrade ReFS 3.4. Now Windows Server 2022 (nor does Windows 10) doesn't recognize the disks as belonging to any storage pool, Windows 11 recognizes the storage pool but can't deal with ReFS 3.4! I'm stuck...
kirbyzhang MikeLabatt I am quite confused by the last bit.
Windows 10 22H2 already had the support for ReFS 3.4, infact since release 1803.
Are you sure you meant ReFS 3.4 here and not a later version? In place upgrades, including Storage Spaces shall upgrade the ReFS volumes from current version to the latest ReFS version automatically.
While optionally / and recommended Storage Spaces version requires a manual update.
ReFS volumes will be upgraded (no easy OS rollback possible, and do not expect ReFS would downgrade, too) when they are mounted and have read / write permissions (read only flag may not be set via diskpart).
ReFS 3.9 should be the version that comes with W10 22H2 or Windows 11 22H2
ReFS 3.7 for Windows Server 2022 since it is matches with W10 21H2.
Thank you for further information, while I appreciate the "best answer" I am confused about the unexpected complexity you are facing here. Trying to help to find out on the why + if this is a bug trying to repro his.
Kindly asking for repro steps.Karl-WE My storage pool was created with Windows 10; I believe it's using ReFS 3.4 (no way to check exactly now that everything isn't working).
I put the drives in a new Windows 11 system; recognized the pool, but gave the "metadata file with inconsistent data error". But the UI offered for me to "upgrade the pool". I naively clicked on that in hope for a quick fix. So the pool was upgraded, but Windows 11 still gave the same metadata error.
Then I realized reading your answer I needed Windows Server 2022 to upgrade the drives to ReFS 3.7, which Windows 11 will later be able to work with. At first I tried to run Windows Server in a Hyper-V VM under Windows 11, but it wouldn't accept the hard disk pass through, because it was being managed by storage spaces (which I correctly declined to destroy the storage space). Then I tried to fresh install server 2022 on bare metal, but it refused to do that as well getting confused on UEFI partitions and got "cannot create or use a partition" during installation. Finally I used the original Windows 10 partition, and upgraded to Windows Server 2022 while Windows 10 was running. Success, I thought!
That's when I realized Windows Server 2022 (and Windows 10 as well) can no longer read the storage pool, which I clicked "upgrade" under Windows 11. The disks showed as separate disks and RAW. I searched very hard online but found no way to reassemble the old storage pool, or downgrade the upgraded pool.
Finally I tried the latest Canary edition of Windows 11, hoping they had a recent fix, but no luck there either (although the error message in event viewer changed to "Volume 😧 is formatted as ReFS but ReFS is unable to mount it; ReFS encountered status Object Name not found.."
So that's my situation now, can't move back, can't move forward. I'm trying Ease US and ReclaiME but looks like a lot of folder structure will be lost plus I have to fork over a hefty fee due to Microsoft's "ReFS surprise".
MikeLabatt I ended up installing Windows Server 2022 and both ReFS drives were fixed in seconds. Then I switched back to Windows 11 and it works fine. Thanks for the working solution.
I don't understand why MS couldn't put functionality that converts ReFS to a newer version to Windows 11 as well.- They are still the same issues when using Windows Server 2025 preview and Windows 11 (preview). this is by design of different used ReFS version.
- Hi, thank you very much! I have the same problem, Windows 10 was automatically upgraded to Windows 11 and I can't access the ReFS disks. This is very strange behavior. Is there a way to fix this directly in Windows 11 or do I have to install Windows Server 2022? I still can't believe this happened.
