Jan 2024 Patch Tuesday Update Causing Insufficient Disk Space Errors

ThrashZone · Jan 10, 2024

Ghot said:
Once I saw that the Macrium bootable rescue media had a command prompt... it was time (for me anyway), to kill the Recovery partition.

View attachment 83707

From my thread asking about how to create a recovery partition in front of C
I did find out just the 260mb efi and 16mb gpt doodah in front of C s good enough and of course out of the way.

barreleye · Jan 10, 2024

Megahertz said:
I didn't mentioned the C: partition. I only mentioned the recovery partition.
If the recovery partition is encrypted you won't be able to use it on an emergency

I figured you misspoke since recovery partitions are never encrypted when an OS drive is encrypted, and the one I just created anew also is not.

idgat · Jan 10, 2024

hsehestedt said:
This is precisely why I always created "oversized" RE partitions at 2 GB, so I guess that I am immune to this .

And another example of why I delete the recovery partition. Windows doesn't need it to run, and the user doesn't need it if there are regular (scheduled) imaging.

Megahertz · Jan 10, 2024

barreleye said:
I figured you misspoke since recovery partitions are never encrypted when an OS drive is encrypted, and the one I just created anew also is not.

I understood that the recovery partition was encrypted

Code:

C>reagentc /enable
REAGENTC.EXE: Windows RE cannot be enabled on a volume with BitLocker Drive Encryption enabled.

barreleye · Jan 10, 2024

barreleye said:
When this issue first came to light, I disabled WinRE to avoid it. Now I'm getting the 0x80070643 on my Windows 10 system when I try to update it. I followed the instructions to create a new 750 MB partition, but I still get the error, even after rebooting. Diskpart displays the following:

Code:

DISKPART> list part Partition ### Type Size Offset ------------- ---------------- ------- ------- Partition 1 Primary 350 MB 1024 KB Partition 2 Primary 464 GB 351 MB Partition 3 Primary 748 MB 465 GB DISKPART> list volume Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info ---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- -------- Volume 0 System Rese NTFS Partition 350 MB Healthy System Volume 1 C System NTFS Partition 464 GB Healthy Boot * Volume 2 E Windows RE NTFS Partition 748 MB Healthy

When I try to re-enable WinRE, I get the following error message from reagentc:

Code:

C>reagentc /enable REAGENTC.EXE: Windows RE cannot be enabled on a volume with BitLocker Drive Encryption enabled.

Any ideas how to proceed from here?

OK, I figured it out. I followed the instructions here for MBR partitions:

KB5028997: Instructions to manually resize your partition to install the WinRE update - Microsoft Support

support.microsoft.com

In particular, this line is wrong:

Code:

If your disk is MBR, run create partition primary id=27

It turns out that command wasn't sufficient on its own, and I needed to run the command "set id=27" after formatting the partition as described in the KB article. This results in changes to the "Type" field as listed below, it clears the reagentc error, and it allows Windows Update to install the update.

Code:

DISKPART> list part

  Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset
  -------------  ----------------  -------  -------
  Partition 1    Primary            350 MB  1024 KB
  Partition 2    Primary            464 GB   351 MB
* Partition 3    Primary            748 MB   465 GB

DISKPART> set id=27

DiskPart successfully set the partition ID.

DISKPART> list part

  Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset
  -------------  ----------------  -------  -------
  Partition 1    Primary            350 MB  1024 KB
  Partition 2    Primary            464 GB   351 MB
* Partition 3    Recovery           748 MB   465 GB

ThrashZone · Jan 10, 2024

glasskuter said:
You have that backward, It's the DellSupport partition I need to get rid of. The WinReTools is the one I want to extend.

Hi,
yeah free minitool or I've been looking poking around disk genus free to which does a lot more than just should basic partition adjustments
DiskGenius Free Edition - Free Partition Manager for Windows

glasskuter · Jan 10, 2024

Fantastic @ThrashZone I didn't take any chances, Used Minitool at boot deleted DellRE, extended WinRe, easy peasy. Didn't have to reagentc /disable since it was all done offline.
That old unusable Dell partition with leftover unallocated space at the end of the disk has been aggravating me for a while. Now I have a huuuuge WinRE partition. 3gb

ThrashZone · Jan 10, 2024

glasskuter said:
Fantastic @ThrashZone I didn't take any chances, Used Minitool at boot deleted DellRE, extended WinRe, easy peasy. Didn't have to reagentc /disable since it was all done offline.
That old unusable Dell partition with leftover unallocated space at the end of the disk has been aggravating me for a while. Now I have a huuuuge WinRE partition. 3gb

Hi,
You could go further tweaking and assign some to C but I doubt there is much priority past getting the update taken care of atm.

NICK ADSL UK · Jan 10, 2024

My workaround was to reinstall windows, keeping my documents and settings. This procedure is simple to undertake, as it realigns the hard drive recovery partition in which the update fault lies.

ThrashZone · Jan 10, 2024

NICK ADSL UK said:
My workaround was to reinstall windows, keeping my documents and settings. This procedure is simple to undertake, as it realigns the hard drive recovery partition in which the update fault lies.

Sort of went nuclear didn't you :zany:

NICK ADSL UK · Jan 10, 2024

ThrashZone said:
Sort of went nuclear didn't you

You could say that. I didn't think that folk messing around with their hard drive a good idea, so thought let's give the reinstallation a go. Only took half an hour and put in place a new recovery partition.

hsehestedt · Jan 10, 2024

glasskuter said:
@hsehestedt I've been meaning to ask this question that relates to this for a while. The recovery partition is a gray area for me.
I have an old useless Dell recovery partition I never got around to deleting that's at the end of my drive. If I delete this partition, would I be able to extend WINRETOOLS partition into the unallocated space without having to create the recovery partition again. I guess what I'm asking is, in this particular case, would extending that recovery partition be any different than extending any other partition into adjacent unallocated space. Any special commands like in the MS article or just a straightforward extend?
Can I do this using Minitool on line or would doing it from boot be better?

I can survive without a recovery partition but space is not an issue so I might as well use it and have a working recovery anyone could use if something happens to me.

I'm away from my main system, sitting out by TV with a tablet, so I'll send a more detailed response later.

But bottom line is that, yes, you can extend that partition, but you could also give some of that space back to your Windows partition of you want. I will send detailed instructions later.

hsehestedt · Jan 10, 2024

barreleye said:
Doesn't that mean decrypting my OS drive? I'm not doing that. If I can't get this working, I'm happy to leave WinRE disabled, but I want to stop getting this error message in Windows Update.

I don't believe so. I was able to shrink my BitLocker encrypted partition and create a recovery partition at the end of the disk with no problem.

Again, I will try to test later.

glasskuter · Jan 10, 2024

hsehestedt said:
I'll send a more detailed response late

No need, I actually figured it out and got'ter done. Thank you

hsehestedt · Jan 10, 2024

idgat said:
And another example of why I delete the recovery partition. Windows doesn't need it to run, and the user doesn't need it if there are regular (scheduled) imaging.

I have debated doing that as well since you could simply boot from Windows install media and then choose the option to repair my computer to get into a recovery environment from there. Have not actually taken that step yet.

barreleye · Jan 10, 2024

hsehestedt said:
I don't believe so. I was able to shrink my BitLocker encrypted partition and create a recovery partition at the end of the disk with no problem.

Again, I will try to test later.

No need. I was responding to a red herring, and the shrinking of the Bitlockered OS partition and recreation of the larger Recovery partition had gone without a hitch. That guy later said he thought the Recovery partition was encrypted, which is not even a thing, and like I said, I wasn't going to even contemplate unencrypting my OS drive anyway. For an explanation of the actual cause of my problem, which was poor instructions from Microsoft, and how I solved it, see my previous message in this thread.

Stigg · Jan 10, 2024

hsehestedt said:
Apparently some people are getting errors with the Jan updates. The exact error is 0x80070643 = CBS_E_INSUFFICIENT_DISK_SPACE.

To resolve the issue, increase the size of the Recovery Environment partition by 250 MB. Instructions can be found at the link below.

KB5028997: Instructions to manually resize your partition to install the WinRE update - Microsoft Support

support.microsoft.com

This is precisely why I always created "oversized" RE partitions at 2 GB, so I guess that I am immune to this .

This is interesting information that I didn't know about. I only have 56 MB of free space in my Recovery Environment partition on my Windows 11 computer.

Disk partition requirement for using Windows RE tools on a UEFI-based computer - Windows Client

Introduces the disk partition requirement for using Windows RE tools on a UEFI-based computer.

learn.microsoft.com

For Windows operating systems later than Windows 10, version 2004 or Windows Server 2022, the partition must have at least 200 MB of free space.

My recovery partition is currently 600 MB, and the latest winre.wim is larger than that.

glasskuter · Jan 10, 2024

You'll all probably think I'm nuts for my reasoning to keep WinRE as I've never once used it myself. If me or Windows screws something up, I slap one of my images on it and keep on trucking. But I've been thinking more and more of this mess of equipment I'll leave behind if something happens to me.
Passing or going to a nursing home is a gruesome thought, but always a possibility with my age and the shape I'm in.
My husband wouldn't have a clue how to do a clean install or wipe the drive before he sold or gave away all this stuff and he has no one to help him. In my "list of instructions if I kick the bucket" it was easier to instruct him (or someone) how to get into recovery and wipe everything. Hopefully, he can follow the steps.

ThrashZone · Jan 10, 2024

glasskuter said:
You'll all probably think I'm nuts for my reasoning to keep WinRE as I've never once used it myself. If me or Windows screws something up, I slap one of my images on it and keep on trucking. But I've been thinking more and more of this mess of equipment I'll leave behind if something happens to me.
Passing or going to a nursing home is a gruesome thought, but always a possibility with my age and the shape I'm in.
My husband wouldn't have a clue how to do a clean install or wipe the drive before he sold or gave away all this stuff and he has no one to help him. In my "list of instructions if I kick the bucket" it was easier to instruct him (or someone) how to get into recovery and wipe everything. Hopefully, he can follow the steps.

Hi,
Not at all but then again I got so many lectures on why I'd want the darn thing in front of C instead at the end of C it's all good hehe
Frankly I got tiered of seeing ms keep creating them over and over
The above was a hell of a lot easier on mbr than this picky gpt/ uefi stuff lol

I'm thinking our disks are similar looking now
If I recall the oem recovery partitions were in front of C as well ?