ReFS volume recovery failed on Windows 11

ReFS, or Resilient File System, is Microsoft’s latest file system introduced for standalone and server versions of Windows. However, if you receive an error message that says Recovery of the ReFS volume failed. on Windows 11/10 follow this post to resolve the issue.

What happens if restoration of ReFS volumes is unsuccessful?

ReFS stores data and associated information (metadata) using a digital fingerprint or checksum to ensure functionality and data security. However, flow integrity is disabled by default on the disk volume label.

ReFS volumes appear as RAW.

If ReFS volume recovery fails, one of the most common symptoms of failure is ReFS section looks like RAW V Windows Disk Management utility. In case of such failures, we can follow the following steps to restore data to an external device:

• ‌Connect the external drive to your PC or laptop via USB and open Run dialog box by clicking the button Windows+ P keys together.
• type cmd and press Enter run Windows terminal.
• IN Terminal type,

refcp D:\Data F:\Backup /status

Here, F:\Backup represents the external drive letter, and Backup is the folder from which data is restored. D:\Data (source path) a backup copy will be saved. /status The switch can also be used additionally to view transmission status in real time.

‌Once the data backup is complete, we can reformat the volume to ReFS for further use.

ReFS volumes cannot be mounted or the disk is not visible

Disk mounting is the process by which internal or external storage devices are made available to the OS installed on a PC or laptop after they are physically connected to it. Once mounted, the OS dynamically assigns a drive letter (D:, E:, F:, etc.). However, if ReFS The volume remains corrupted after recovery, the specified volume may not be visible or Windows may not recognize it, resulting in mounting issues. To solve the problem, we can take the following solutions:

‌Launch chkdsk utility to check and fix volume errors from the Windows terminal by typing:

chkdsk /f /r D:

D: represents ReFS volume and /f ensures that any structural problems, if found, are corrected. /r used to detect damaged parts of a volume and recover data from damaged areas to place it on an undamaged or undamaged disk.

‌As an alternative step, we can also try to force the drive to mount using cmdlets in the Windows terminal. To do this we can enter:

mount D: /f

D: This ReFS ride, and /f ensures that the system forcibly mounts the disk even if the volume is partially damaged. After successful mounting, we will be able to recover the data and reformat the disk to ReFS.

ReFS volume recovery failed on Windows 11

If you cannot recover a ReFS volume, you can do the following to resolve the issue:

1. Use Windows PowerShell commands
2. Allow or enable file integrity streams
3. Use ReFSutil

1) Use Windows PowerShell commands.

If we try to repair ReFS disk volume for which we do not have a backup, we can still use Windows PowerShell cmdlets to restore the volume as an alternative. To recover a damaged volume:

• ‌Open Windows PowerShell typing the same in Search bar on desktop and click on the first search result.
• On PowerShell hint type,

Repair-Volume -DriveLetter E -OfflineScanAndFix

The above cmdlet goes offline E: disc volume and tries to correct existing errors by Offline scanning and repair. Once completed, the volume automatically comes online. Multiple volumes can also be recovered in the same way by specifying the drive letters as shown below:

Repair-Volume -DriveLetter GHI -Scan  -SpotFix

Besides OfflineScanAndFix option, we can also use -Scan And -Spotfix to discover and recover ReFS volumes. In this example, the mentioned volumes (G:, H: and I:) are scanned for errors and any errors found are added to the system file. The -SpotFix option then checks the same system files and repairs the corrupted entries mentioned in the file.

Read: Fix REFS_FILE_SYSTEM Blue Screen Error in Windows

2) Allow or enable file integrity streams

Although ReFS uses an integrity cleanup mechanism to automatically track and repair data corruption, sometimes this mechanism may not detect a problem.
ReFS Volume recovery may fail due to data corruption or file system errors. In such cases, providing the opportunity File Integrity Flow increases our chances of successfully recovering the volume and minimizing data loss. To enable it using Windows PowerShell:

• ‌Open Windows PowerShell by typing the same in the search bar on your desktop and clicking on the first search result.
• ‌On PowerShell hint type,

C:\> Set-FileIntegrity H:\ -Enable $True

Where HOUR:\ Represents a disk volume that has file integrity enabled.

Read: ReFS volume is unavailable after upgrade

3) Use ReFSutil

ReFSutil is a Windows command line tool that detects corruption in ReFS volumes, identifies files that are not yet corrupted, and migrates such files to other volumes. It uses the recovery feature for the specified process, which consists of two separate stages – the scanning and copying stages. The phases can be executed one by one manually by executing the commands below:

refsutil salvage -QA D: C:\Temp C:\Recovery

Quick Scan (QA) can be performed on the corresponding volume (D:) where the working directory is located. C:\Temp And C:\Recovery is the target directory. The working directory is the folder that the utility will use to store log and temporary files during the extraction process. The target directory specifies the path to the folder to store the recovered files.

Note: The Volume Shadow Copy Service must be running for the ReFS utility and recovery functionality to work.

Does chkdsk work with ReFS?

Unlike traditional file systems such as NTFS, ReFS uses self-healing capabilities. It can automatically detect and correct errors using checksums, making CHKDSK scanning unnecessary.

How much memory does ReFS require?

To optimize ReFS performance, it is generally recommended to allocate 0.5 GB of RAM for every terabyte of ReFS storage. However, this scaling is not linear. For ReFS volumes smaller than 200 TB, 128 GB of RAM is often sufficient, considering both the OS and ReFS requirements.