Out-of-Band Updates for Windows (Jan. 17/18, 2022) doesn't fixes ReFS Issues complete

Windows[German]The security updates for Windows released by Microsoft on January 11, 2022 resulted in the loss of support for the ReFS file system and disks being displayed as RAW. As of January 17 and 18, 2022, Microsoft has released special updates to fix this bug as well. However, the updates do not seem to completely fix this ReFS issue.


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I had reported about the problems caused by the Windows security updates of January 11, 2022 in the blog post Microsoft Microsoft Januar 2022 Patchday Revisions (2022/01/14) as well as in the posts at the end of the article.

ReFS support missing after January 2022 patchday

The January 11, 2022 updates have an issue where disks formatted with ReFS only show up as RAW after the updates are installed. I had addressed this in the blog post Microsoft patch day issues Jan. 2022: bugs confirmed, but updates not pulled. There, however, the report referred to the installation of updates KB5009624 (Monthly Rollup for Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2) and update KB5009595 (Security Only Quality Update for Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2). Users suddenly lack support for the ReFS file system. German blog reader Olaf Becker reported the bug in this comment (I've translated it).

One more problem has appeared.

On all Windows 2012 R2 servers, all ReFs volumes are in RAW format after installation.

The cause seems to be KB5009624. After uninstalling the update and rebooting the server, the disks are back.

German blog reader Dallmann confirms in this comment diesem Kommentar the error also for Windows Server 2012 (i.e. without R2). On reddit.com there is this post, which points out that this may take Exchange servers with it to death (I got confirmation in further comments). On Facebook, blog reader Patrick Pa had told me another strange observation about the update KB5009543 for Windows 10 21H2, that a VHDX file mounted over the network, which is Bitlocker encrypted, is no longer accessible as a drive in Windows Explorer after some time. Details can be read in the mentioned blog post Microsoft patch day issues Jan. 2022: bugs confirmed, but updates not pulled.

Microsoft provides ReFS fix updates

On January 17 and 18, 2022, Microsoft released out-of-band updates to bring back the missing ReFS support for the respective Windows version. The support posts in question state:

Fixes an issue that can prevent removable media formatted with the robust file system (ReFS) from being recovered or cause the removable media to be deployed in RAW file format. This issue occurs after installing the January 11, 2022 Windows update.

I've pulled out a list of all the out-of-band updates that claim to fix the ReFS problem below.


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Comments like this (German) one confirm that the ReFS drives can be mounted again. However, there are inconsistencies because Windows 10 version 1909 as well as Windows 7/8.1, Windows Server 2007 R2, Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows Server 2012 have also received the following out-of-band updates.

However, I did not find any references to a fix for the ReFS problem in the support articles there. Since the comment snippet above explicitly lists Windows Server 2012 R2 as affected, this means that the problem may not have been fixed yet.

Has the ReFS bug not been fully fixed?

At least for Windows Server 2012/R2, it appears that the ReFS bug caused by the January 11, 2022 update has not been fully fixed. There are several comments within my German on the blog confirming this.

I installed This in my test lab 2012 r2 with test reFS mount point. The original patch broke this. Once I installed 5010794 the mount point was still broken. has anyone else had this issue?

In this comment writes that under Windows Server 2012 R2 the local Raid 5 array with ReFS and an ISCSI drive with ReFS could be mounted again after installing KB5010794. But an external USB drive with ReFS continues to show up in RAW mode. Another user posted the following addition:

found another post stating this issue is for fixed drives as well which microsoft has not addressed yet
from the veam forum

"Franc wrote:
@regnor , well that was quick with MS support. They confirmed it's also an issue with fixed drives, but the patch from yesterday was only for external drives. They are still working on a fix for fixed drives and he will inform me once the patch is available. He couldn't explain though why Microsoft doesn't mention the issue for fixed drives anywhere, but only for external drives. He confirmed he already had multiple cases where other customers also experience the issue with fixed drives.

No good Microsoft, no good…"

Addendum: Blog reader Karl directed me via Twitter to this discussion on Technet. A user wrote:

A day after the other out-of-band updates, KB5010791 was made available for Windows Server 2019 as well. However, it did not resolve the ReFS issue for me. I uninstalled KB5010791 and then KB5009557, and the broken ReFS volume mounted fine again (it is on a storage space, not removable media).

January 18, 2022—KB5010791 (OS Build 17763.2458) Out-of-band

Is somehow chaos at Microsoft regarding the fixing of the ReFS bug. What are your experiences in this regard? Did I miss something in the support posts?

Similar articles:
Windows Server: Out-of-Band Update fixes Remote Desktop issues (2022/01/04)
Microsoft Office Updates (January 4, 2022)
Microsoft Security Update Summary (January 11, 2022)
Patchday: Windows 8.1/Server 2012 R2 Updates (January 11, 2022), boot loop reported
Patchday: Windows 10 Updates (January 11, 2022)
Patchday: Windows 11 Updates (January 11, 2022)
Patchday: Updates for Windows 7/Server 2008 R2 (January 11, 2022)

Windows Server: January 2022 security updates are causing DC boot loop
Windows VPN connections (L2TP over IPSEC) broken after January 2022 update
Windows Server 2012/R2: January 2022 Update KB5009586 bricks Hyper-V Host
Microsoft patch day issues Jan. 2022: bugs confirmed, but updates not pulled

Microsoft Microsoft Januar 2022 Patchday Revisions (2022/01/14)
Windows Out-of-band Updates fixes Jan. 2022 patch day issues (Jan. 17, 2022)
Windows 10/Server: Out-of-band Updates fixes Jan. 2022 patch day issues (Jan. 17, 2022)
Out-of-band Updates for Windows Server 2019 fixes Jan. 2022 Patch day issues (Jan. 18, 2022)
Windows 7/8.1; Server 2008R2/2012R2: Out-of-band Updates with Fixes for Jan. 2022 Patch day Issues (2022/01/17)

Review: Fix for Windows IPSec VPN Connection Issues
Out-of-Band Updates for Windows (Jan. 17/18, 2022) doesn't fixes ReFS Issues complete


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7 Responses to Out-of-Band Updates for Windows (Jan. 17/18, 2022) doesn't fixes ReFS Issues complete

  1. Milos says:

    Good morning, I deployed patch KB5010794 to the 2012R2 server with Exchange ReFS and the volume did not mount. This patch disabled access to the local volume. Milos

  2. an says:

    Same issue here.
    Applied the initial Update and the additional Hotfix from the update catalog.

    REFS iSCSI device works, but not external REFS Hard drive.

  3. Oran Band says:

    KB5010790 has failed to fix the ReFS issue on server 2016
    however KB5010791 did fix the issue on my Server 2019.

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  5. Wim says:

    In a VMware virtual machine: adding the following configuration parameter brings the ReFS volumes back to life
    devices.hotplug = false

  6. xsoliman says:

    The refs fixes will NOT work with refsv1 disks as used or inherited from Server 2012R2.

    The ONLY soln for WS2012R2 on VMWare is to disable hotadd/hotplug as per
    https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1012225?lang=en_us

    (Same as Wim above mentions)

  7. xsoliman says:

    The refs fixes will NOT work with refsv1 disks as used or inherited from Server 2012R2.

    The ONLY soln for systems using refsv1 disks or for WS2012R2 on VMWare is to disable hotadd/hotplug as per
    https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1012225?lang=en_us

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