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Karl-WE's avatar
Karl-WE
MVP
Apr 08, 2021
Solved

CRITICAL - Storage Spaces: ReFS mirrored storage space will not free up space, related Defrag issues

This is an issue introed in the build of Windows 10 1903, first reported 8 months before release. I didn't thought this would be included in to Server 2022 LTSC since I have successfully worked on t...
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  • Elden_Christensen's avatar
    Elden_Christensen
    Jun 15, 2021

    Karl-WE yes, absolutely :smile:    Sorry for the delayed response, we have been internally discussing.  It sounds like you are already working with CSS support and they have already provided a private which resolves the issue.  That fix is now going into our servicing pipeline for release in a future monthly Cumulative Update.  We are targeting that fix for a cumulative update for WS2022 / AzS HCI 21H2, however I don't have a date for you at this time.  Continue working with your CSS contact. 

     

    Sorry,

    Elden 

Karl-WE's avatar
Karl-WE
MVP
Apr 08, 2021

I would rate this as critical because deletion of files will not free up space on the volume or storage spaces pool, so users can end up (and I did back then in Insider Dev) with an unuseable system.
The only workaround is to reformat the affected volumes with ReFS to free up the space on the Storage Pool.

Or to format the volume with NTFS to avoid the issue at all (not suitable imho, if one wants to use the benefits of ReFS, e.g. Hyper-V VHDX Creation, Snapshots, Citrix PVS merge etc.)

 

edit: Screenshots for Server 2022 Build 20324 attached

  • Karl-WE's avatar
    Karl-WE
    MVP
    Apr 14, 2021
    Is there anything I could provide to help you to fix this? It's a double benefit if you can und fix it based on the ReFS of Windows Insider Dev it will be also fixed in Windows 10.

    Thank you very much for your reply.
    • Karl-WE's avatar
      Karl-WE
      MVP
      Jun 10, 2021

      Dear Mary Hoffman Elden_Christensen Prasidh_Arora 
      unfortunately this or other "issues" reported during the Windows Server 2022 LTSC have not been caught before release. On some items it was not clear for participants of these have been reviewed and triaged and the actual outcome.

      By all means Windows (Server) is a very complex product, and I appreciate all time you can spare on techcommunity.microsoft.com to get in touch with testers.

      I hope you are still reading this community hub, despite officially 2022 is "RTM"

      I would like to strongly recommend review the private fix.
      It does affect Windows Server 2022 and all previous Win 10 Pro / Enterprise / Pro for Workstation, Windows Server version, builds starting from 1903.
      In worst case users an customers could end up with a "full" Storage Pool and outtake if they cannot attach more disks (unneedlessly).

      Both issues could even affect AzureStackHCI 20H2 eventually , as the fix in Windows Insider was made in b16268.

      The private Fix KB (intended and basically tested by the MS team and confirmed by me for 2004) is KB900645.

      The fix is supposed to address these issues (we are refine on defrag behaviour still)
      Noted: this private fix has a better behaviour than the one that I originally contributed to in b16268

      feedback hub: 
      https://aka.ms/AAbmte3
      https://aka.ms/AAbfubr

      REG: 120072921001646, Storage Spaces pool does not reclaim free space from deleted files

      Thanks to SusanBradleyGeek for her help to create the escalation support case back in 07/2020❣️

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