Home windows 11 will lock the file system on some USB sticks and SD playing cards in 2027
Microsoft has been warning since October 13, 2026 that Home windows will now not acknowledge ReFS storage units sooner or later. The restriction is about to take impact with the safety replace in January 2027. This replace is anticipated to be launched on January 12, the second Tuesday of the month. An affected USB stick or SD card will then now not open as traditional on a Home windows 11 PC. The recordsdata saved on it won’t be robotically deleted, however Home windows will initially be unable to entry them.
What are the implications?
Microsoft developed the ReFS file system as a extra trendy various to NTFS, which Home windows has been utilizing for a few years. Amongst different issues, ReFS is designed to handle massive quantities of knowledge extra reliably. Nevertheless, it’s not a standard selection for typical USB sticks, and Home windows 11 doesn’t help it in all eventualities.
Sadly, Microsoft has not given a particular cause for the deliberate restriction. One doable rationalization is compatibility points: ReFS volumes might trigger issues with Home windows and different units or working techniques. Nevertheless, that is merely a conjecture.
Directors can bypass the restriction by way of a Group Coverage named ‘RefsRemovableDeviceMountPolicy’ or by way of an entry within the Home windows Registry. These settings are primarily supposed for managed computer systems. Anybody unfamiliar with them ought to due to this fact keep away from altering them.
Microsoft classifies the usage of ReFS on detachable media as unsupported. Though the file system can handle partitions of as much as 35 petabytes in measurement — equal to 35 million terabytes — this benefit is of little sensible relevance for on a regular basis use with USB sticks. Home windows 11 can already use ReFS for sure information partitions; nevertheless, it’s nonetheless not supposed to be used as an ordinary system partition.
Yow will discover extra details about the deliberate finish of help for ReFS on this weblog publish.
