It's possible to enable ReFS integrity streams even on a single drive using Set-FileIntegrity X:\ -Enable $True. This works with an individual drive formatted as ReFS and also with a Storage Space set to 'Simple (no resiliency)'.
If you try to copy a corrupted file from that drive, you get an error stating "A data integrity checksum error occurred," and you can also see an error message in the Event Viewer. So far, so good—it works as intended!
Another feature of ReFS with integrity streams is automatic data scrubbing. It checks the drives for corruption (and repairs errors). This is controlled by tasks in Task Scheduler -> Microsoft -> Windows -> Data Integrity Scan.
Unfortunately, this feature doesn't work with a single-drive setup. Running the tasks only produces an informational message in the Event Viewer: "Completed data integrity checks." It doesn't detect errors like it does in a 'Two-way mirror' Storage Space, for example.
I have confirmed this behavior on multiple systems (VMs). This appears to be a Windows limitation, but I'm posting this here in case anyone who knows more about it wants to chime in.
Then there's the refsutil triage command, which is also supposed to perform data scrubbing, but I have not been able to make it work. I don't even know what kind of value it expects for the drive ID (which seems to be a long hex value?). Using a random valid number for the ID produces this message: "Triage attempted to scrub the ID, but due to a file system limitation it cannot guarantee success."
If someone knows more, please let me know.
(P.S. TrueNAS with ZFS performs automatic data scrubs on a single drive with no redundancy and it correctly detects errors. But this is a Windows forum, so let's discuss Windows.)
If you try to copy a corrupted file from that drive, you get an error stating "A data integrity checksum error occurred," and you can also see an error message in the Event Viewer. So far, so good—it works as intended!
Another feature of ReFS with integrity streams is automatic data scrubbing. It checks the drives for corruption (and repairs errors). This is controlled by tasks in Task Scheduler -> Microsoft -> Windows -> Data Integrity Scan.
Unfortunately, this feature doesn't work with a single-drive setup. Running the tasks only produces an informational message in the Event Viewer: "Completed data integrity checks." It doesn't detect errors like it does in a 'Two-way mirror' Storage Space, for example.
I have confirmed this behavior on multiple systems (VMs). This appears to be a Windows limitation, but I'm posting this here in case anyone who knows more about it wants to chime in.
Then there's the refsutil triage command, which is also supposed to perform data scrubbing, but I have not been able to make it work. I don't even know what kind of value it expects for the drive ID (which seems to be a long hex value?). Using a random valid number for the ID produces this message: "Triage attempted to scrub the ID, but due to a file system limitation it cannot guarantee success."
If someone knows more, please let me know.
(P.S. TrueNAS with ZFS performs automatic data scrubs on a single drive with no redundancy and it correctly detects errors. But this is a Windows forum, so let's discuss Windows.)
My Computer
System One
-
- OS
- Windows 11
