​Microsoft has confirmed that it won't provide an automated fix for a known issue causing 0x80070643 errors when installing recent Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) updates.

20240520 UPDATE: I just ran winupdate on an ancient win10 surface and after the same 643 error two more times, and running through all the available updates, it’s now reporting I’m up to date. yippee.
I guess the latest update finally fixed it, at least on the Surface.

Anyone tried and succeeded? Not too awful plodding through the resizing? Tips to avoid destroying a partition and having to reinstall the os?

  • N3Cr0English
    29•29 days ago

    A recovery environment is overrated under Windows. Just backup your files and reinstall from scratch.

    • @CrackhappyEnglish
      18•27 days ago

      I’ve been using windows since windows 3. The number of times I’ve used the “recovery” feature is exactly zero.

      Edit: Corrected by another user below. I have used it a couple times for update rollbacks, I just haven’t used it for a full recovery. When I’ve run into serious issues I just reload it from scratch, as I keep data and OS on completely separate drives.

      • BuelldozerEnglish
        15•29 days ago

        The number of times I’ve used the “recovery” feature is exactly zero.

        The RE Partition is for more than Recovery. If you’ve ever uninstalled an update then you’ve used the RE Partition.

        • @CrackhappyEnglish
          4•29 days ago

          Very good point! Then I have used it.

        • N3Cr0English
          2•29 days ago

          In this case I’m happy I always installed Windows without RE partition. It works fine and you can still uninstall updates. Broken system files can also be replaced by a fresh pull from Windows Update.

      • subignition
        6•29 days ago

        Lucky for you! Twice over the years I have had Windows 10, the system failed to come back up after a windows update and the ability to uninstall the most recent update through the recovery partition saved me.

      • Possibly linuxEnglish
        3•29 days ago

        It recovers in the background with no user intervention when things go wrong.

    • @[email protected]English
      11•29 days ago

      It’s more than strictly a recovery partition. It is also used for updates and the files needed to roll individual ones back. The entire issue was that they had an update that didn’t properly handle when there wasn’t enough space for it in the recovery partition.

    • @[email protected]English
      5•29 days ago

      Yeah, I have it turned off on all my machines (mostly because of that vulnerability a few months ago).

      I have never been in a situation where it was useful, nor have I ever had it work when I tried it.