Microsoft: We are working on KB5034441/KB5034440 "0x80070643 - ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE" fix

Microsoft released the first Windows 10 and 11 Patch Tuesday updates of 2024 earlier yesterday with the January updates KB5034122 and KB5034123 respectively. The updates are meant to address security issues within Windows. The one for 11 also fixes the recent Wi-Fi troubles that led to networks not connecting or the Wi-Fi icon not showing.

In a separate article, the company has also detailed a fix for a WinRE (Windows Recovery Environment) security vulnerability that can lead to BitLocker encryption bypass. The issue is being tracked under ID "CVE-2024-20666". Microsoft said that the security flaw could allow attackers to bypass BitLocker encryption if they are able to get physical access to an unpatched PC.

However, this is not one of those WinRE updates that is seamlessly installing on PCs. Users report that the update is failing to install with the error message "0x80070643 - ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE" which indicates insufficient WinRE partition size.

The solution is to resize the partition manually. You can do so by following this dedicated guide here.

Neowin forum supervisor / mod and ESET's Distinguished Researcher Aryeh Goretsky (X account) also experienced the issue which they were able to fix by increasing the recovery partition. Goretsky writes:

Hello,

I can confirm that the KB5034441 hotfix failed on a Windows 10 VM with a Windows Recovery partition that was 511MB in size. I decided to increase it to 1024MB in size, just in case more space was needed in the future. The hotfix installed normally afterwards.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

Microsoft of course has been aware of this problem almost from the start which is why it has been recommending the manual resize workaround as soon as it published the WinRE updates. Yesterday, on its Windows health dashboard, the company has added the issue and notes that a fix is coming via a future update.

Microsoft says:

Devices attempting to install the January 2024 Windows Recovery Environment update ( KB5034441/KB5034440) might display an error related to the size of the Recovery Environment's partition.

 

Resulting from this error, the following message might be displayed.

 

• "0x80070643 - ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE"

Workaround: It might be necessary to increase the size of the WinRE partition in order to avoid this issue and complete the installation. Note that 250 megabytes of free space is required in the recovery partition. Guidance to change the WinRE partition size can be found in KB5028997: Instructions to manually resize your partition to install the WinRE update.

 

Next steps: We are working on a resolution and will provide an update in an upcoming release.

Aside from this BitLocker encryption vulnerability, Microsoft has recently updated its Microsoft Printer Metadata Troubleshooter Tool to patch against a Remote Code Execution (RCE) security flaw.

Source