19. ReFS on Windows Pro

Recently ReFS create moved to Windows 10 Workstation, effectively removing the ability to create ReFS containers in Windows 10 Pro, but they can still be read. Virtual disks with ReFS formatting can be created and exported for use in 10 Pro machines.

Empty ReFS formatted disk images below, ensure disk is updated and optimized in storage spaces before use. bitlocker can be used.

ReFS 1TB single virtual disk with integrity enabled: refsi.zip (784k)
ReFS 1TB mirrored virutal disk: refsi-mirrored.zip (1.8M)

Reference

19.1. Format ReFS on using a single drive

ReFS allows for integrated file checksums, duplication, and error recovery; however by default it requires two disks. This will allow you to use this filesystem on a single disk with integrity enabled which is not possible by default.

Setup disk for ReFS (powershell as admin).

diskpart
list disk
select disk [#]
clean
create partition primary
format fs=refs quick

⌘ + x › computer management › disk utilities

Mount ReFS partition to a drive letter.

Reformat drive with integrity enabled.

Format Single Drive with Integrity Enabled & Verify with Test File (powershell as admin).

format X: /fs:refs /i:enable /q
echo $null >> X:\test
Get-Item X:\test | Get-FileIntegrity

Note

Both Enabled and Enforced should be set to True.

Disable ReFS Scheduled Tasks

By default ReFS will schedule integrity checks (as well as automatic integrity checks after windows crashes), which cause 100% disk usage on system PID 4. Disabling ReFS Scheduled Tasks prevents these from automatically being scheduled, but can still be manually run.

Reference

19.2. Addressing 100% Disk Usage Issues

Generally speaking, 100% disk usage issues usually means there’s a Filesystem check happening, or another service is hammering the disk. These will address this but may break functionality of your system.

These services either do user data tracking, or are a major performance hit for SSD’s. Disable by {RMB} › stop and {RMB} › properties › disable.