Enable or Disable ReFS File System in Windows 8.1 and Windows 10  

Cbarnhorst said:

I understand that Windows is not yet loaded when the freeze happens but I don't understand the relationship between the registry entry and the multi-boot issue when no installation is taking place and no data disk is being formatted yet.

That is bizarre, the .reg is simply a text script with 2 keys to merge into your registry. You could hand edit it, and try one, and then the other (put ; to comment out 1 entry), to narrow down which registry key is causing the issue with your multi boot setup.

For what it's worth, I'm dual booting too, and have merged in the keys in the .reg script.

I am however just dual booting with Win 8.1 and a Win 10 (14393.51) installs, both in .vhdx on an NTFS RAID 0. I'm using ReFS on 2x RAID 5 arrays. All on GPT disks with UEFI boot, and hardware RAID.

When your dual boot is in error, you may want to boot up from the .iso/usb and use Shift+F10 to access the Windows PE command prompt, and can inspect your boot loader with bcdedit, etc ...

AlphaSparqy said:

That is bizarre, the .reg is simply a text script with 2 keys to merge into your registry. You could hand edit it, and try one, and then the other (put ; to comment out 1 entry), to narrow down which registry key is causing the issue with your multi boot setup.

For what it's worth, I'm dual booting too, and have merged in the keys in the .reg script.

I am however just dual booting with Win 8.1 and a Win 10 (14393.51) installs, both in .vhdx on an NTFS RAID 0. I'm using ReFS on 2x RAID 5 arrays. All on GPT disks with UEFI boot, and hardware RAID.

When your dual boot is in error, you may want to boot up from the .iso/usb and use Shift+F10 to access the Windows PE command prompt, and can inspect your boot loader with bcdedit, etc ...

Yeah, it sounds like a BCD problem, given the timing of the freeze. ReFS is no problem when used in my Storage Space and I was able to make the registry change in build 10586 and format a test data disk with ReFS just fine in all the same dual-boot configurations. I removed the entries after the test and only tried them again after the upgrade to 14393 to see how things were going with ReFS and that is when the issue surfaced. There is no problem with the Storage Space and it remains as it was before the upgrade to 14393, formatted ReFS. It also does not seem to matter when the system partitions were created since I upgraded my test box to SSDs after 14393 released and both drives were secure erased before clean installing 14393 on one and 14901 (since upgraded to 14905 of course) on the other. The volumes on the other two computers have not been reconfigured since the original test I referred to above.

Cbarnhorst said:

Yeah, it sounds like a BCD problem, given the timing of the freeze. ReFS is no problem when used in my Storage Space and I was able to make the registry change in build 10586 and format a test data disk with ReFS just fine in all the same dual-boot configurations. I removed the entries after the test and only tried them again after the upgrade to 14393 to see how things were going with ReFS and that is when the issue surfaced. There is no problem with the Storage Space and it remains as it was before the upgrade to 14393, formatted ReFS.

I would suggest to use the Windows PE environment (Shift +F10) from your 10586 iso/usb however. As I mentioned in my initial post, there is for sure an issue with the 14393 iso/usb at least where diskpart is concerned. It could also have bad bcd entries, etc ...

AlphaSparqy said:

I would suggest to use the Windows PE environment (Shift +F10) from your 10586 iso/usb however. As I mentioned in my initial post, there is for sure an issue with the 14393 iso/usb at least where diskpart is concerned. It could also have bad bcd entries, etc ...

Have you reported all this using the Feedback Hub? I did so already but your information would be a further help in correcting WinPE or whatever else the issue relates to in the next iteration of Windows 10. Since I did not clean install the Anniversary Update on two of the computers I don't know how the 14393 .iso would figure into the picture as far as partition information is concerned.

Brink,

The registry change causes issues in the Anniversary Update. I just did a clean installation of Windows 10 Pro build 14393 on a virgin SSD. This computer is not multi-boot. This is the only Windows installed. Dell XPS 8500, Samsung 850 EVO 1tb (msata version). I used the download in the tutorial to enable formatting disks with ReFS and checked that the choice is present in the format applet. Then I tried to use System Restore and it was broken (or the Properties page is broken). I then used the second download in the tutorial to turn off formatting with ReFS and the error immediately disappeard. Please investigate this. If you can replicate then the tutorial should be addressed again. The issue is out there for more than just multi-boot. Multi-boot may not have anything to do with it. I have attached a screen shot.

Brink said:

I get the same issue on my laptop, but not on my desktop that I use a ReFS formatted data drive. Odd.

Both have Windows 10 Pro build 14915 installed.

Try some other features that rely on VSS and see what else there might be. Can you replicate the system restore error on build 14393? If it breaks an important feature of 14393 then it would cause wider problems than if only on a preview, of course. I didn't see this issue on the Fall Update.

Brink said:

I get the same issue on my laptop, but not on my desktop that I use a ReFS formatted data drive. Odd.

Both have Windows 10 Pro build 14915 installed.

The reason I brought up VSS is that I have seen this same error when trying to make a system image with the Control Panel/System and Security/Backup and Restore (Windows 7)/Create a system image tool with the registry setting change in effect. Try that one on both your desktop and laptop, please.

Brink said:

I just did some more testing, and it appears to be a bug since at least build 14393.

I get the same issues on both my laptop an desktop. I forgot that I did a clean install on my desktop for build 14915, and never enabled to be able to format with ReFS. My data drive previously formatted with ReFS is still recognized.

The problem is broader. Here is another feature impacted. Create System Image thinks the system is running in Safe Mode with format ReFS turned on. It is OK with the default restored. Already formatted drives are fine. At least my ReFS formatted Storage Space is unaffected.