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.
"Is there a way to upgrade REFS to a version that is supported by the patch? "
Any in-place upgrade (starting from Windows Server 2016) will upgrade all attached write-able disks to the latest ReFS Version without formatting or data loss. However, the Exchange Team do not support in-place upgrades of the OS. This is certainly due to the dependencies of .net / PowerShell that would change. Also, IIS services, but the latter often upgrade well.
If you would like to prevent the upgrade set the drive to read-only via PowerShell or diskpart.
This can be needed if you are just testing the upgrade and would like to revert. Once upgraded you cannot downgrade. Also, there is no tool (afaik) to execute a manual upgrade without reformatting.
MicrosoftIf you mean v1.2 to v3.x then no. Only option would be to create a new disk, format refs (which will be v3.x) and copy data over (with Exchange or anything using the volume tempoarily off)(or maybe Exchange has a way to move/migrate data to a new drive whilst it all live).
Note you will only be using refs v1.2 if the data disks were originally created by Server 2012/2012R2.
If you are already on refs v3.x then Im not sure I understand the question
- As explained above, I am done & finished with data copy.
- you might try to capture the REFS volume using Disk2VHD and attach it to a Hyper-V VM running Windows OS like WS 2012 R2 and in-place upgrade it to 2019, this might upgrade the RAW volume to later ReFS that is compatible with WS 2019. Other than that you might try to attach it to WS 2019 VM. You can basically also create this Hyper-V VM on a client OS like Windows 10/11 Pro.
Booting from MBR WinPE USB created by ADK 8.100.26020 can see the Storage Spaces volume & access it just fine. So just (as per https://superuser.com/questions/696004/copying-a-directory-by-retaining-its-permission )
xcopy c:\source_folder_name e:\destination_folder_name /O /X /E /H /K /Crobocopy F:\ H:\ /MIR /LOG:c:\temp\ReFS-mirror-log.txt
to USB 3 attached 2Tb drive does the job of saving the data.And once rebooted FreeFileSync back onto newly formatted ReFS 3.x
But is is INSANE that WinPE from (by now) abandonware version Win 8.1 CAN read ReFS 1.2, but full Server 2022 cannot do that
At least provide RO capability!!! in worse case
Seb- I am sure the filesystem is fine, just not being read. In worse case I will swap the SSD to previous one (with Windows 2012 R2), but wanted to avoid it (fuff going up the ladder to the high cabinet - this is where I have the server)
First I will try to boot to USB made with WinPE from ADK 8.100.26020 - stephc_msftAnd since you cant easily boot from alternate med0a (usb/dvd/sio) there is no way to tempoarily boot ws2012r2 to see if that still recognises it [of was possible then would boot the install disk and exut setup into recovery, and the necessary spaces drive etc would be working].
So what is the actual set up of any hdd / spaces that the refs volume lives on?
And chance of adding a dumb 2TB disk as we could 'copy over' the raw refs volume to that to see if that recognises it. - Just Operational & it is blank
- stephc_msftmsinfo would probably show that under storage, ide
but no way to set any BusType for that.
Not sure if the 'removable' aspect is the cause here.
Does the refs event log say anything ? msinfo32, storage, scsi gives only Microsoft Storage Spaces Controller
Controller is set to AHCI in BIOS
Seb
- stephc_msftSo there is a set of disks (hdd probably) set up as storage spaces, and the storage spaces virtualdisk has an ReFS volume. That spaces disk/volume shouldnt be considered removable, and hence not sure this is showing RAW due to the 'no longer supporting removable media with Refs v1' issue.
What hba adapter of the relevant hdd's on?
probably a HP something or iaStorAVC
(msinfo32, storage, scsi should show it eh Intel chipset sata raid controller)
Find that drive in the system registry (system\currentcontrolset\services\xxxx)
and look under Parameters for the BusType
if set to 10 (0x0a) = sas [and removable] then try changing to 8 (raid, even though not using raid) Server 2012 R2 on HP Micro Gen8 server. Absolutely awful hardware as far as boot is concerned! (it can only boot from internal USB if one used ODD bay for SSD, MBR only, just awful)
Could not upgrade to either 2019 or 2022 because setup would throw all sorts of error on reboot & always revert back to original OS, 2012 R2
I did not want to do clean install, because could not be bothered to re-configure the all the bits on the server
Took the SSD out, converted to vhd, used Virtualbox, disabled plenty of hardware related services, run Server 2022 upgrade, worked fine.
Converted vhd back to SSD, server boots fine
But ofcourse the existing Storage Spaces with ReFS are showing as RAW
Not huge amount of data, < 2 Tb
What is now the quickest way to access it?
Seb- Dear Stephen,
it is clear that older OS cannot read any later formatted ReFS versions. That's why I brought up the caveat when (temporarily) testing inplace upgrades.
Do you think it would be possible or feasible to provide a powershell commandlet to check the version or upgrade the version of ReFS volumes? - stephc_msftWell earlier OS's (like WS2019 with Refs 3.4) CANT use refs (3.7) (eg from a disk formatted by a ws2022 system), so you DONT want to update the refs v3 version UNLESS you update the OS AND never need to present the disk to an older OS ever again.
A few people have been caught out by this.
There is a registry key that can be set to avoid a later OS updateing the refs version but MUST be set before the disk is presented to it stephc_msft True Stephen, for ReFS 1.x there is no upgrade path. Sorry for the confusion. My intention was ReFS 3.x or later which has upgrade paths, so to motivate people to use ReFS where appropriate.
Further information about the differences:
https://gist.github.com/0xbadfca11/da0598e47dd643d933dc
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/refs/refs-overview
edited my post, hope it is more precise now. Thanks for double-checking.
