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

How to: Enable or Disable ReFS File System in Windows 8.1 and Windows 10

How to Enable or Disable to Format with ReFS File System in Windows 8.1 and Windows 10


Resilient File System (ReFS) is a new local file system supported by Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. It maximizes data availability, despite errors that would historically cause data loss or downtime. Data integrity ensures that business critical data is protected from errors and available when needed. Its architecture is designed to provide scalability and performance in an era of constantly growing data set sizes and dynamic workloads.

While Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 natively supports ReFS drives, you are not able to format a drive with ReFS by default unless manually enabled.

The key features of ReFS are:

• Integrity: ReFS stores data so that it is protected from many of the common errors that can cause data loss. File system metadata is always protected. Optionally, user data can be protected on a per-volume, per-directory, or per-file basis. If corruption occurs, ReFS can detect and, when configured with Storage Spaces, automatically correct the corruption. In the event of a system error, ReFS is designed to recover from that error rapidly, with no loss of user data.
• Availability: ReFS is designed to prioritize the availability of data. With ReFS, if corruption occurs, and it cannot be repaired automatically, the online salvage process is localized to the area of corruption, requiring no volume down-time. In short, if corruption occurs, ReFS will stay online.
• Scalability: ReFS is designed for the data set sizes of today and the data set sizes of tomorrow; it’s optimized for high scalability.
• App Compatibility: To maximize AppCompat, ReFS supports a subset of NTFS features plus Win32 APIs that are widely adopted.
• Proactive Error Identification: The integrity capabilities of ReFS are leveraged by a data integrity scanner (a “scrubber”) that periodically scans the volume, attempts to identify latent corruption, and then proactively triggers a repair of that corrupt data.

For more details about ReFS, see:

• Resilient File System Overview
• Resilient file system (Windows)
• Windows Server 2012: Does ReFS replace NTFS? When should I use it? - TechNet Blogs
• ReFS - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Building the next generation file system for Windows: ReFS - Building Windows 8 - Site Home - MSDN Blogs
  
• ReFS: Log-Structured Performance And I/O Behavior Microsoft MVP Award Program Blog

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable the ability to format drives with ReFS (Resilient File System) in Windows 8.1 and Windows 10.

You must be signed in as an administrator to be able to enable or disable formatting with ReFS.



Note You will not be able to format the Windows drive with ReFS.

Resilient File System (ReFS)

Creation ability will be available in the following editions only: Windows 10 Enterprise and Windows 10 Pro for Workstations.

Creation ability will be removed from all other editions. All other editions will have Read and Write ability.

(added: August 17, 2017)


Warning Some people have reported having issues with Windows after enabling ReFS. The main issue being reported is anything using VSS will not work until ReFS is disabled again. This includes file history, system restore, Windows backup, and system images.

It is recommended to disable formatting with ReFS after you have formatted the drive with ReFS to avoid the issues above and still be able to use the ReFS drive.

To be extra safe, you should also system restore at boot and select the restore point to undo.

EXAMPLE: Format Drive with ReFS





Here's How:


Note The downloadable .reg files below will add and modify the DWORD values in the registry keys below.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\MiniNT

AllowRefsFormatOverNonmirrorVolume DWORD

(delete MiniNT key) = disable
1 = enable

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem

RefsDisableLastAccessUpdate DWORD

0 = Enable
1 = Disable



1. Do step 2 (enable) or step 3 (disable) below for what you would like to do.


2. To Enable Formatting with ReFS
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Enable_formatting_with_ReFS.reg

Download

3. To Disable Formatting with ReFS
*note This is the default setting.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Disable_formatting_with_ReFS.reg

Download
4. Save the .reg file to your desktop.

5. Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

6. If prompted, click on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

7. You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.


That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Enable or Disable TRIM Support for Solid State Drives (SSD) in Windows 10
• How to Convert NTFS to FAT32 without Data Loss in Windows
• How to Convert FAT32 to NTFS without Data Loss in Windows

:)

 

Windows 10 Installation Error 80070032

This was exactly my issue too - been battling the 0x80070032 error when installing Windows 10 Insider preview builds on and off since 9879.

The issue: I want to be able to use REFS in Windows 10 - plain and simple! Thus, I almost always applied the registry key in order to enable support for REFS: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\MiniNT

One other side effect observed: Event Viewer would break after applying this key too. Removing this key fixed both issues.

Microsoft, please allow the use of REFS in Windows 10, especially Enterprise. More specifically, enable support for REFS v2.0, which is available in Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview. Currently Windows 10 only reads and formats REFS v1.2.

 

ReFS

Read up maybe;

Resilient File System (ReFS) overview, march2018

Features that are removed or deprecated in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, dec2017

 

Hello Charles, *Smile

The error message says that ReFS is not supported on that device.

Please go ahead and post a screenshot showing the full layout of your Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc) along with which drive you are trying to format with ReFS. This may help determine what the issue could be.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1...en-forums.html

 

Found it... I can't format my external USB stick because it is treated as "external", but I can with my external USB hard disk, because the disk is treated as "internal" because WD apparently decided to.

 

I'm glad you found the cause of the issue, but sorry you won't be able to format it with ReFS.

 

Hello,

I proceeded as shown, but when I restart the computer, I only see the windows loader "gif" and nothing happens. Then I have to restart until I see the options for repairing windows. When I repair it, windows starts again and made registry changes are disappeared. Haven't I wait long enough when there was the windows loader gif? I waited an "eternity". Or what is the reason?

I need ReFs or the possibility of more than 255 characters. I also installed Anniversary Update and tried to activate long paths, but this also didn't work, because in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Group Policy Objects\, that should be changed aren't available. When I create it, it becomes ignored. I didn't see any error messages when installing Redstone Update and there is no error when I carried out SFC Scannow. But in local group policies I have seen, that there are missing some administrative templates. But till now I couldn't change it or install the missing parts. Is there a way to reinstall it easily?

Or do you have an answer to the origin topic of my try to enable ReFS?

Until I got an answer, I will also test Windows 10 install on vmware player and hope that one of the tried operations will work there..

Thanks!

Best regards
Nils

 

Hello Nils, and welcome to Ten Forums. *Smile

This tutorial will only enable you to be able to format drives (other than Windows system drives) with ReFS. You shouldn't need to restart the computer to apply once enabled.

It would be best to create a new thread in the forum for your other issue to see what we can do to help with it there since it's not related to this tutorial.

 

Dear Brink,


thanks for the welcome greetings and answer.



But I didn't try to format system drive! I only made changes in registry. I only restarted PC because often changes in registry are only applied system wide until system rebooted. But this wasn't possible. I just want to format a second hdd without installed Windows systems.



Best regards
Nils

 

Nils,

It sounds like you may have some other issue at hand since the registry changes made by this don't affect anything other than being able to format with ReFS afterards.

You might see if doing a system restore using a restore point dated before this started may help.

 

Hi Brink,

I tried it on a virtual machine. There are the same entries missing in a fresh installed windows 10.

But now it worked in the normal (not virtual) Windows 10 to to the changes and to restart. Now I can format as ReFS. But when I choose ReFS for formatting an error message occurs that formatting cannot be finished.

Is the ReFS formatting only possible for whole drives or for one partition (beside other NTFS partitions), too?

Best regards
Nils

 

It can only be for the whole disk to be formatted by ReFS.

 

No, he is right. I tried the registry change on three computers with the same exact result. I had to restart with a Repair Disc and do a System Restore to my latest restore point to fix the problem. Windows then rebooted normally. I went through this same sequence on a Dell E6520 running Windows 10 Pro, build 14393.51, a Dell XPS 8500 running the same, and a DIY running the same. The registry key used to work on build 10586 without issue but kills any chance of a warm or cold restart on the Anniversary Update. I suggest you remove the tutorial until you can research and fix.

 

It's currently working without issue on my Windows 10 Pro build 14905 with a second internal data drive formatted using ReFS.

Every VM I enable this on also has no issue.

I don't see how it would cause anyone an issue though since it only adds the ReFS option to be able to use to format supported drives with. Otherwise, it doesn't make any other changes. Are you dual booting, or have a different setup than the usual? Perhaps there's come common element that may be conflicting with this.

 

Yes. Dual booting 14393.51 with 14905 on two systems and 14393.15 and Windows 7 on the Dell E6520. The restarts never reach the dual boot menus. What follows is a gray screen with no more disk drive activity. Two of the computers are using Samsung 850 EVO SSDs and the Dell XPS 8500 is using a 64GB m2SATA cache with a 2TB HDD. I considered trying the registry patch on one of the systems dual booting with 14905 by setting the default to the 14393 drive as a failover but I don't think that will discover anything new. Whatever it is, it needs to be investigated because dual booting the retail and insider builds is a pretty useful scenario. The XPS 8500 is using an ReFS formatted storage space consisting of a pair of large HDDs in a two-way mirror configuration. That, of course, did not require the patch to set up. The DIY is using an NTFS formatted storage space in the same configuration. The Dell E6520 has nothing else special. The DIY and the XPS 8500 dual boots are on separate spindles. The E6520 dual boot is set up as two partitions on a 1TB SSD.