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.
Experienced the exact same issue. ReFS volume is in a storage space and is ReFS version 3.4. Update to Windows 11 23H2 rendered the volume inaccessible. I rolled back to Windows 10 22H2, which restored access to the volume.
I then downloaded the Windows 11 24H2 iso and initiated the upgrade, from a usb drive formatted with Rufus, from within windows. After the upgrade the volume is visible, files and folders can be enumerated. However, all files are missing security info and cannot be accessed.
I tried simply replacing all files security info with inherited permissions from the drive root, which did display accurate security information, but I received an error for each file stating that it was not accessible. I canceled the operation. Now what to do?
Fortunately I have enough free space on my storage space array to carve out a new ReFS volume of the same size that is no longer accessible. Also fortunately, everything on the inaccessible ReFS volume is backed up on external SSDs. So, I simply restore everything from backups, deleted the original ReFS volume, and assigned the new volume to the previous volume's drive letter 🙂 and all is well.
Sharing my experience because there are obviously still issues with ReFS compatibility when moving to newer versions of Windows, even the latest release. The only way to ensure your data is safe is to have multiple copies. The positive part of my "solution" is that the new ReFS volume is version 3.14. While less compatible with previous versions of Windows, I'm hoping the kinks are worked out with these later versions of the file system and I won't have to go through this same exercise in the future.