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.
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".
kirbyzhang that's super unfortunate. ReFS is not very transportable across versions.
newer OS version can read older ones as long it is ReFS 3.x but not vice versa.
The storage spaces construct makes it extremely hard as they are treated like VHDX files / virtual disk.I have low hopes you can access the data with third party tools at all. The only way forward might be:
- use Windows Server 2025 Eval or Windows Server insider (newer)
which should understand the pool version used by Windows 11 (not vice versa, Storage pools created in WS cannot be intepreted by Windows Client - don't ask me why) best case it will be able to read the pool and the virtual drives.
- using ReFSUtil on Windows 11 to salvage the files if necessary. no easy job.
- try using Windows + X > Terminal (Admin) > fsutil fsinfo refsinfo mounting point of the raw disk to get the ReFS infoThose tools read the ReFS just fine. The difference is they're fighting for our consumer dollars, MS is long gone from Windows 95 days, it has better priorities now.
Windows 11 specifically cannot read ReFS 3.4 but it will 3.7. Windows Server 2022 can convert from 3.4 to 3.7. This is just some org chart mess up that they haven't cared to fix since this post started.edit: on Windows 11 it's able to mount the volume, and refsutil salvage reports the following:
Microsoft ReFS Salvage [Version 10.0.11070] Copyright (c) 2015 Microsoft Corp. Local time: 8/21/2024 4:35:11 ReFS version: 3.4 Boot sector checked. Superblocks checked. Checkpoints checked. No corruption is detected. Command Completed. Run time = 1 seconds.