Workaround and recovery steps for issue with some Parity Storage Spaces after updating to Windows 10, version 2004 and Windows Server, version 2004

Last updated: August 3, 2020 3:30AM PST

This article is for devices that have already updated to Windows 10, version 2004 or Windows Server, version 2004 and are affected by the issue using Parity Storage Spaces described in KB4568129.

Note Simple Storage Spaces and Mirror Storage Spaces are not affected by this issue.

There is currently no full mitigation for all scenarios of this issue. 

Some troubleshooters have been released to affected Windows 10, version 2004 devices to address some of the issues and can mitigate the issue for some scenarios. You can verify that the troubleshooter has run using the following steps:

1. Select Start and type: troubleshoot
2. Select Troubleshoot Settings
3. Select View History in the Troubleshoot section of the Settings dialog.
4. If the troubleshooter has attempted to run, you will see a critical troubleshooter or recommended troubleshooter with the title and description from the below table.  The notes column explains what the troubleshooter does.

Note When following the steps above on devices using Simple Storage Spaces or Mirror Storage Spaces, you might see a Could not be run message for the troubleshooter.  This is expected as Simple Storage Spaces and Mirror Storage Spaces are not affected by this issue.  The troubleshooter and steps below are not needed on these types of Storage Spaces.  If you are using Parity Storage Spaces and receive a Could not be run message, then you might need to use the steps below.

If you are using Windows Server, version 2004 or the troubleshooter has not yet run, you can use the following instructions to mark them as read only:

1. Select Start and type: powershell
2. Right click or long press on Windows PowerShell and select Run as administrator.
3. If prompted by a User Access Control dialog for Windows Powershell, select yes.
4. Within the PowerShell dialog, type the following command and press enter: Get-VirtualDisk | ? ResiliencySettingName -eq Parity | Get-Disk | Set-Disk -IsReadOnly $true
5. Your Storage Spaces should now be set to read only, meaning you will not be able to write to them.  Your device will still be usable, and any volume not seen as RAW should be readable.

Note The above steps are the equivalent to the troubleshooter above titled Hardware and devices troubleshooter.  There is currently no manual equivalent to the troubleshooter titled Storage space troubleshooter.

If you previously applied the workaround above in the Workaround using manual steps section or have not yet received the Storage Spaces cleanup troublershooter, you might need to perform the manual steps below to restore you Storage Spaces to your previous settings.  If you have already received the troubleshooter named Storage Spaces cleanup troubleshooter, then you do not need to perform the steps manually.

Perform the following manual steps to complete the remediation:

1. Select Start and type: powershell
2. Right click or long press on Windows PowerShell and select Run as administrator.
3. If prompted by a User Access Control dialog for Windows Powershell, select yes.
4. If you did not receive Troubleshooters (see section above for validation), skip this step and continue to step 5. If you are running Windows 10 and received Troubleshooters, complete the following steps before step 5.
   1. Within the PowerShell dialog, type the following command and press enter: Unregister-ScheduledTask -TaskName "Storage Spaces Troubleshooter"
   2. Within the PowerShell dialog, type the following command and press enter: Get-VirtualDisk | ? ResiliencySettingName -eq Parity | Set-VirtualDisk -IsManualAttach $false
5. Within the PowerShell dialog, type the following command and press enter: Get-VirtualDisk | ? ResiliencySettingName -eq Parity | Get-Disk | Set-Disk -IsReadOnly $false
6. Within the PowerShell dialog, type the following command and press enter: Start-ScheduledTask -TaskPath "\Microsoft\Windows\Defrag" -TaskName ScheduledDefrag
7. Within the PowerShell dialog, type the following command and press enter: Start-ScheduledTask -TaskPath "\Microsoft\Windows\Data Integrity Scan" -TaskName "Data Integrity Scan"
8. Your Storage Spaces should now be returned to read write

If you are able to access your Parity Storage spaces and it does not show as RAW in Disk Manager, you can attempt recovery using WinFR and the steps below.  For more information on how to use WinFR, see Recover lost files on Windows 10

1. Download and run the tool from https://www.microsoft.com/store/apps/9N26S50LN705
2. Run segment mode (/r) with the undeleted files flag (/u) to recover files from your NTFS volumes. By default, this will recover all possible files.  You can add filter flags if you are only interested in certain file formats (such as/n *.docx) and to reduce system file recovery.  Example command to recover all docx files present in the C: drive to the D:\SpacesRecovery folder: winfr.exe C: D:\SpacesRecovery /r /u /n*.docx
3. Once the command has completed, you can view the recovered files. In the above example, you would need to go to D:\SpacesRecovery to do so.  If you encounter issues using WinFR, please contact winfr@microsoft.com.

If you have a ReFS volume that shows as RAW in Disk Manager, you can use the refsutil salvage command to recover data to a volume of equivalent size. There are two options for salvage command: quick and full. A quick recovery may not recover as much data as a full recovery.

To perform a quick recovery:

In an elevated command prompt: refsutil salvage -QA <source volume> <working directory> <target directory>

For example: refsutil salvage -QA E: F:\SalvagedFiles

To perform a full recovery:

In an elevated command prompt: refsutil salvage -FA <source volume> <working directory> <target directory>

For example: refsutil salvage -FA E: F:\SalvagedFiles

This issue was resolved in KB4568831. Please see the sections above to verify you do not need to do any further manual steps after applying this update.

For the status of the issue and the safeguard hold for this issue, please also see KB4568129.