Microsoft Did It Again! Beware Of Bugged Update KB5034441

[Regeneration]

Yesterday Microsoft rolled a several new updates for its Windows OSes as part of its Tuesday monthly update cycle. One of those updates is KB5034441: Windows Recovery Environment update for Windows 10, version 21H2 and 22H2: January 9, 2024.

KB5034441: Windows Recovery Environment update for Windows 10, version 21H2 and 22H2: January 9, 2024 - Microsoft Support

support.microsoft.com

This update is most likely to fail as it attempts to make changes to the recovery partition. When you first install Windows, it automatically creates 500MB recovery partition on the OS drive for the Windows Recovery Environment. And now it appears that 500MB is not enough space to perform an update.

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

support.microsoft.com

Microsoft advises users to manually resize the partition by 250MB.

A risky operation as the OS data needs to be moved around and it is never smart to make adjustments to the OS partition table.

 

[elemelek]

Had this issue, resized WinRE by 500MB and all is good. No data movement needed i think, as it was the last partition, you just shrink the OS one.

 

[DaemonForce]

I never set a recovery partition. If I ever need to do offline maintenance there's either a pentest, massive HDD migration, slow partition recovery or some serious data nuke under whatever WinPE at my disposal. Which reminds me...

Soon...

 

[xtreemchaos]

i think mines allright.

 

[AusWolf]

It failed to download on my PC. Is this an issue?

 

[GerKNG]

looks like microsoft already makes updates with ChatGPT...

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Shouldn't really be a big deal but funny ms still screwing up such a simple task
Not sure why they just don't make the recovery partition 1-2gb's and be done with it years ago.

Next large update if ms can't enlarge the existing partition it will create another one at the end of C.
It's a winRE recovery partition it's recovery tools like startup repair... plus points to a system image which most people delete soon after updating to save space.

If you have iso installation media you can always use it's recovery tools.

Personally I use macrium reflect winPE recovery media so this RE partition can pissoff.
But have made it 2gb's so ms would stop cluttering my disk up.
Used shows 750mbs lol so yeah

 

[freeagent]

Took the update yesterday, was waiting for me to reboot it. So far so good, no shenanigans to be seen..

 

[P4-630]

Nevermind!

I'm on Windows 11 on my main PC lol!!

 

[ThrashZone]

Nevermind!

I'm on Windows 11 on my main PC lol!!

Hi,
11 might not matter seeing ms is silly on both levels

Recovery partition 611mb at the end of C is likely not a problem anyway like I said as long as the recovery partitions is at the end of C ms will resize it and if not ms will create another next to it next time it needs to write to the existing.

 

[AusWolf]

Recovery partition 611mb at the end of C is likely not a problem anyway like I said as long as the recovery partitions is at the end of C ms will resize it and if not ms will create another next to it next time it needs to write to the existing.

It didn't resize it on my PC - the update simply failed to install.

 

[Princess Garnet]

Just got updates this morning and they seemed to go as usual, but I just checked Windows Update manually and that update is indeed listed as failed though. My partition size is 510 MB so I suppose I'll increase it to 1 GB or something and let it try again.

 

[Regeneration]

It failed to download on my PC. Is this an issue?

If your recovery partition is less then 750MB (which it is for most PCs) it will always fail to download / install with code 0x80070643. It will just nag for eternity.

When you search around for that error code, Microsoft's solution is to tell people (even common people) to resize OS partitions.

 

[P4-630]

OK, so it went fine on my windows 10 laptop luckily...

Had a 980 MB Recovery Partition...

 

[ThrashZone]

It didn't resize it on my PC - the update simply failed to install.

Hi,
Showing ms is as stupid as usual
New policy is worse than the old
Old was just create another if it was to small
New make users increase it's size manually

Do yourself a favor and make it 1-2gb's and be done.
Free minitool or any decent partition tool can do this easily except for maybe disk management it's pretty dysfunctional as ms is lol
I've looking into disk genius free it does system imaging/ winpe recovery media/...

DiskGenius Free Edition - Free Partition Manager for Windows

MiniTool Partition Wizard 11.5 version clean don't update

 

[Zareek]

Yet another example of why I pause my updates. I let everyone else beta test M$ updates for a few weeks before I install them. Is M$ going to fix this, or is everyone expected to do their workaround? My main PC is on 11, but I have several other machines around the house that I'll need to look at now, thanks M$.

 

[ThrashZone]

If your recovery partition is less then 750MB (which it is for most PCs) it will always fail to download / install with code 0x80070643. It will just nag for eternity.

When you search around for that error code, Microsoft's solution is to tell people (even common people) to resize OS partitions.

Hi,
Even 750mb is really no room to grow it's silly to increase by 250.mb as ms suggests

 

[P4-630]

@Regeneration To be clear, add "Windows 10" to the thread title....

Thanks.

 

[Bill_Bright]

Beware Of Bugged Update KB5034441

Where does anything anywhere say anything about this update having bugs? We certainly can bash Microsoft when due. They regularly provide plenty of fodder to do just that. But there is no need to fabricate and misrepresent issues where there is no evidence they exist.

The update itself, as far as we know thus far, does NOT contain any bugs. "Safely" erroring out, without causing any collateral damage because of a lack of space is not a bug. Safely backing out is what it should do.

In my experience, when errors occur with Windows Update, if a couple simple reboots does not clear them, then just sitting it out and waiting a couple weeks for Microsoft to address the issue with a new Windows Update, does.

Resizing partitions is not hard if you know what you are doing. But even then, it can be confusing. And there is always the risk something might go wrong - especially if disk space is already limited. There are already many reports of this update failing to install so Microsoft is surely is aware of it. IMO, waiting it out for a couple weeks to see what happens is the best course of action - for now.

Not sure why they just don't make the recovery partition 1-2gb's and be done with it years ago.

Curious how you expect them to be able to predict years in advance what will be needed. I note "years ago", when SSDs first starting appearing and being used as boot drives, 32GB SSD drives were not uncommon. 64GB and 128GB were almost luxuries. Surely if 2GB of that precious space was being snagged by Windows, all those Windows/Microsoft bashers would have complained that Microsoft was needlessly hogging space. Microsoft can't win. Its as if they are a political party. No matter what they do, or don't do, they WILL be criticized for it. And Microsoft knows that.

It would be great if requirements years from now could easily be predicted. The down side would be the PowerBall would have 1000s of jackpot winners with every drawing.

 

[ThrashZone]

@Regeneration To be clear, add "Windows 10" to the thread title....

Thanks.

Hi,
MS gibberish 11 might as well be effected but renamed the update just scroll down you'll see 23h2 listed lol

Security Update Guide - Microsoft Security Response Center

msrc.microsoft.com

And yeah the above comes off the ops link

KB5034441: Windows Recovery Environment update for Windows 10, version 21H2 and 22H2: January 9, 2024 - Microsoft Support

support.microsoft.com

 

[bug]

I'm on 11, but I'll check the size of the recovery partition. Mine is an ancient install that has been upgraded since Win7 (if not earlier), so Idk...

 

[ThrashZone]

I'm on 11, but I'll check the size of the recovery partition. Mine is an ancient install that has been upgraded since Win7 (if not earlier), so Idk...

Hi,
Yeah you likely have a couple system reserved partitions then.
Win-7 hell it's was 100mb
10 no telling 450mb likely and if gpt ms just creates another except for this dumb ass update just fails instead of making a new one

MS should of just recalled the update/ fix it release again

Clearly not tested

 

[xtreemchaos]

its one of those i need to go to specsavers moments for me cus im on win 11, well 10 to 11 is close eh it only took me 3 hours for the penny to drop.

 

[skizzo]

my recovery partition is 509MB and it still failed so even that is not large enough

I'm not resizing shit despite knowing what I am doing. It's not harming anything leaving it as an update error in the Windows Update window. MS can fix it themselves through an update that is not bugged

 

[Zareek]

I just followed the M$ instructions for this and it is pretty easy. It was not however brainless, and not everything works exactly as the instructions indicate. Example, I have an older laptop (Lenovo T470) my wife uses on the couch. It has a 250GB SSD in it. I followed the instructions to shrink the Windows partition by 250MB. It told me I couldn't shrink it, there wasn't enough free space. This is despite the fact that there was something like 180GB of free space on the partition. Luckily, I overprovisioned the drive and didn't need to mess around any further, I just took some free space from the unallocated space. Again, this wasn't difficult, but for most users this will be a no-go as soon as they need to bring up the command prompt.