Tip of the Day: ReFS clarification

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Today’s Tip…

The new file system introduced in Windows Server 2012, ReFS, has been with us for a couple releases.  However, I still get questions about how to configure Windows to boot to it.  The short answer is that you can’t.  Windows won’t let you do it.

The reason is because of a specific limitation in the file system.  ReFS does not allow for the creation of hard links.  That is, a file can have one and ONLY one parent directory.  This becomes an issue with Windows as ‘servicing’ requires hardlinks in order to function correctly.

No hardlinks = No servicing

No servicing = No Windows

Without the ability to have a file that can belong to multiple parent directories, the file system just can’t support Windows running on it. 

ReFS is great for a number of uses, but booting to it just isn’t one of them.

For more information about how hardlinks work with servicing, please refer to the following blog entries….

https://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2011/01/06/how-hard-links-work.aspx

https://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2011/08/26/more-on-hard-links.aspx