Windows Update KB5034441 install error

[Murphy]

So is this fixed now?

No, it still gets offered as an update.

 

[PaulM]

It disappeared for about a week on my machines but now it's back again, still giving the same error. Bad even my Microsoft standards.

 

[slipd]

From what I'm observing only my Bitlocker enabled boot drive, Win 10 machines are affected. I think MS have published some fix instructions that involve adjusting the recovery partition size? Probably end up giving that a test at the weekend...

 

[PaulM]

My Win10 machines don’t have bitlocker enabled but it still fails.

 

[slipd]

My Win10 machines don’t have bitlocker enabled but it still fails.

Interesting... do you have a Recovery partition out of interest?

 

[PaulM]

Interesting... do you have a Recovery partition out of interest?

Yeah, it's just the default partition layout the installer created on a clean drive:

Partition 1    System             100 MB  1024 KB
Partition 2    Reserved            16 MB   101 MB
Partition 3    Primary            880 GB   117 MB
Partition 4    Recovery           633 MB   880 GB

 

[Armadillo]

I just hid that update. MS broke it, MS can fix it.

 

[ED209]

I think the issue is down to the size of the recovery partition not having enough space.

Don't think BitLocker matters if enabled or not.

Edit, link below.

KB5042320: Windows Recovery Environment update for Windows 10, version 21H2 and 22H2: January 9, 2024 - Microsoft Support

support.microsoft.com

IMPORTANT This update requires 250 MB of free space in the recovery partition to install successfully. If the recovery partition does not have sufficient free space, this update will fail. In this case, you will receive the following error message: 0x80070643 - ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE To avoid this error or recover from this failure, please follow the Instructions to manually resize your partition to install the WinRE update and then try installing this update.

 

[Blackjack Davy]

I just hid that update. MS broke it, MS can fix it.

How do you hide it? Its supposed to be for Recovery environment with a recovery partition I deleted the darn partition and the update still won't go away

nevermind, done

 

[rodders]

I have this on boths kids PCs, been trying things, update diagnostics etc...
Finda things, fixes things, but won't install still.

I guess it's wait for MS to fix it, or do the partition thing, but that looks a bit scary!

 

[PaulM]

Looks like they don't really have any intention of releasing an alternative update for this considering it's been broken for 6 weeks now.

I didn't want to faff around with resizing partitions because I have a lot of Win 10 machines but gave up waiting and just went ahead and did it this morning. Microsoft is pretty out of touch with the average computer user if they expect them to follow their instructions without breaking anything.

 

[rodders]

Is it as easy as copying their script, pasting in powershell and off it goes?

 

[PaulM]

Not sure if there’s a powershell script but their instructions here https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb...e-update-400faa27-9343-461c-ada9-24c8229763bf cover it OK. If you’re in any way computer savvy, like most on a forum like this it won’t be a problem.

For the “average” user though there would probably be a blank stare even if you asked them to do step 1 (open command prompt as admin)

 

[Emlyn_Dewar]

It's pretty poor but what do we expect from modern Microsoft?
The cynic in me says they don't want to fix it, and might even benefit from it. I could imagine some seeing a dodgy update and it being the final push they need to get a new-shiny Windows 11 PC.