How to Identify Cross-Linked Files?

[Lancer]

Microsoft recommends that the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) partition be enlarged to 750MB to enable installation of the Jan 2024 Windows security update KB5034441. With the WinRE partition at 518 MB as originally created by Windows, the update fails to install. When I tried to enlarge the partition, my partition software reported cross-linked files and would not proceed with the partition change. Unfortunately, the partition software did not identify the specific cross linked files by name so that I could delete both cross-linked files and restore them. Even if I could enlarge the partition with a dumber partition utility, I doubt that Windows Update could install the update with cross-linked files. The volume is RAID, and NTFS.

Does anyone know of any utility within Windows, or other 3rd-party software, that will identify the file name/location of cross-linked files?

 

[Solaris17]

I have had to solve this for a few friends, but it seems like you may not be doing this correctly.

Try the script to do this for you.

Add an update to Windows RE

Add an update package to Windows RE.

learn.microsoft.com

Or attempt to do it manually (what I do)

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

support.microsoft.com

 

[Lancer]

Solaris17, thanks! Any suggestion regarding a utility to identify cross-linked files?

 

[Solaris17]

Solaris17, thanks! Any suggestion regarding a utility to identify cross-linked files?

I dont think cross linked files are really your issue. I have done this 5 times now and one of them the recovery partition wasnt even in the right spot it was in the front of the disk and at no point did I need to worry about symlinks when making partition modifications.

 

[Lancer]

Only in the process of enlarging the WinRE partition did I happen to discover the cross-linked files situation, which may indicate a solution to another problem. I've been having some difficult-to-troubleshoot random computer stability issues, and so I am thinking there may be more cross-linked files responsible, and I want to check for them on other partitions as well. On other computers, I've done the WinRE partition enlargement and update install, so no issues with how to do that. My objective with this thread question is to find a way to identify cross-linked files under NTFS. Chkdsk will list cross-linked files for other than NTFS, but not with NTFS, so can't use Chkdsk.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

That condition, means two or more files or directories are assigned to the same cluster! But that's never supposed to happen to NTFS or any journaling FS!

Is this issue with FAT32 after a power outage or crash?

 

[Lancer]

Nothing is FAT32, only NTFS w/ GPT partitioning. To update, I didn't find any tool to identify cross-linked files, so I went ahead and deleted the old WinRE partition and created a new 1GB WinRE partition using the Microsoft recommended procedure with diskpart. The recreated WinRE environment works normally. But despite the generous new WinRE partition size, the Jan 2024 update KB5034441 will still not install, so there is still some underlying issue that deleting and recreating the larger WinRE partition did not resolve. The cross-linked files situation identified by the partitioning software that I originally used is probably indicative of where the issue lies, but I have no way to troubleshoot that. Considering all the reported KB5034441 install failures, I'm thinking that Microsoft might revise the update, so I haven't done anything further pending a possible smarter update package to try.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

the Jan 2024 update KB5034441 will still not install, so there is still some underlying issue that deleting and recreating the larger WinRE partition did not resolve. The cross-linked files situation identified by the partitioning software that I originally used is probably indicative of where the issue lies, but I have no way to troubleshoot that. Considering all the reported KB5034441 install failures, I'm thinking that Microsoft might revise the update, so I haven't done anything further pending a possible smarter update package to try.

Sounds like wipe-the-drive-and-reformat-time.

Those error messages, can very well be warning signs of a faulty SSD as well. A very good chance that the SSD is faulty, if Windows seems slow! Often, with a bad SSD, IIRC, Windows will be abnormally slow!

 

[Lancer]

Windows is not slow, just difficult to start, then a random system freeze after about a week of running. The Windows startup process hangs at the circle of dots just before Windows is supposed to start, requiring multiple restart attempts before Windows finally starts normally to the user login screen. Thought maybe the cross-linked file condition reported by partitioning software was responsible, or at least indicative of where to troubleshoot. I'm trying to avoid the nuclear option of wipe, reformat, and reinstall, but options are narrowing as I haven't the diagnostic/repair tools or knowledge to accomplish a fix so far.

 

[R-T-B]

That still sounds sort of like an unhealthy or failing SSS symptom, potentially.