Forum Discussion
ReFS volume appears RAW (version doesn't match expected value) after Windows Update
I solved this by uninstalling KB5009557. The ReFS volume came back working as it should, instead of appearing as RAW.
Update: since even the February 2022 Windows Update bricks ReFS in the same way, and hints from Microsoft are that ReFS 1.x is no longer supported, we copied everything to new disks, upgrading ReFS from 1.2 to 3.4 in the process. Such a (manual) ReFS upgrade should be the solution that everyone needs, allowing to re-enable Windows Update.
ReFS version gets upgraded with OS Inplace upgrades when the volume remains attached (this cannot be reverted)
https://gist.github.com/0xbadfca11/da0598e47dd643d933dc
In this case have an old Server 2012 R2 Update 1 without this bugged patch and mount this volume to this server to gain access to your data with earlier REFS version.
If you then execute and inplace upgrade from 2012 R2 to 2019 this ReFS volume would be upgraded to the specific version Microsoft supports and the patch would work with.
Hope this helps.
stephc_msft I have a question about the following scenario
A customer had Windows Server 2019 VM attached to a VM controller and was affected by the ReFS RAW issueThe server had 2 ReFS volumes formatted with ReFS 3.1 4k Clustersize
Both were locally attached to a VMware controller of the VM (NVMe controller)
What happened:One of the volume was affected on this machine the other was not affected.
You mentioned removable drives earlier so I wonder in which condition Windows considers SAS, SCSI or NVMe drives as removeable drives.
Thanks for taking the time to elaborate on this scenario.MikeLabatt stephc_msft Stephen can you confirm that the remaining issue for ReFS 1.x is documented in the Windows Update History for affected Windows Server and Windows Clients?
If not, I'd propose including it in Windows Update History and link to a new techcommunity article or KB article explaining the situation and solutions, so briefly what we discussed here.
If affected people with ReFS 1.x have a large amount files / data to copy instead of robocopy they can also leverage other tools. I would recommend Gurusquad GSCopy which is infact more scaleable, around 40% faster and has better reporting, open file support etc.I regularly use this for file server migrations.
If one want to stick with Microsoft Tools I would recommend to create a share on the root folder and use Windows Admin Center Storage Migration Service.
This is an easier process for those not being familiar with robocopy and it thas also good output. One needs to omit the last step to change servernames etc.
WAC SMS would only work if one creates a new machine (VM) with a ReFS 3.1 oder later volume. It is not designed to copy from one volume to another on the same machine.- I'd love to be the lone exception, but from other forums and Reddit discussions it seems I am not alone in having lost a ReFS 1.x volume that was not removable due to 2022 Windows Updates. It seems to me that AM-4566 and LarsKemmann in this thread were not using removable media either. I can understand it if Microsoft can only offer a workaround like "copy the data to a new volume", but not even admitting a problem on such a crucial technology seems a bit odd?
stephc_msftMicrosoft
Windows RE (Recovery OS) can read refs volumes ok- Thanks for clarification Stephen!
One question aside if a customer uses WinPE or WinRE from Win10/2016/2019/2022 is this one able to read ReFS natively, I am aware it is not for Storage Spaces.
Some still use Windows Backup to backup files this be restored? TY. - stephc_msftAgreed. Note however that refs v1 does not get auto updated to v3
That only happens on the v3.x versions ie 3.1>3.4->3.7
Hence why 'stuck' with older refs v1 volumes in some cases
ANother option is to to boot the 'Recovery OS' or boot from an Install iso /usb and select reapir. That will be a base OS version (without patches) and can access the data on refsv1 and copy it off.
Reminder - all this hassle only affects drives that are removable or have charactereistics of removable (like on vmware).
With the exception of Mikes original issue which is a weird and unexplained one.