This past week, Microsoft unveiled its November 2024 updates, coinciding with the anticipated Patch Tuesday. Among these updates were the Setup and Recovery dynamic updates for Windows 11, but notably, Windows 10 also received a rare set of dynamic updates. However, this rollout has not been without its challenges.
Installation Challenges with KB5048239
One particular Recovery update, identified as KB5048239, has been causing installation failures, presenting users with the frustrating “0x80070643” error. This issue has sparked discussions across various forums, with users expressing their concerns and seeking solutions.
For instance, a user known as Sebastian94 took to the Windows 10 Forums to voice his frustration, questioning the quality of the update:
“KB5048239: Another poor update of WinRE?”
Similarly, dritzTX shared a detailed account of their experience on the Microsoft forum, stating:
I have exactly the same problem as this (reported earlier this year), but with the new KB5048239 update. I get the 0x80070643 error when it tries to install. Retried several times, but same issue. I’m pretty sure this is the same problem that I had back in January, too. All security updates have worked fine since then, till now.
This user correctly pointed out that a comparable issue arose earlier this year with Windows Recovery Environment updates KB5034440 and KB5034441, which also resulted in the “0x80070643 – ERRORINSTALLFAILURE” message. Microsoft ultimately had to retract those updates and replace them with KB5042321 and KB5042320.
The root cause of these installation failures appears to be insufficient space in the Windows Recovery partition, which requires a minimum of 250 MB for successful installation. Microsoft has acknowledged this issue, providing guidance for users:
NOTE This update requires 250 MB of free space in the recovery partition to install successfully.
To ensure that devices are eligible for this update, users are encouraged to follow the Instructions to manually resize your partition or utilize a sample script to increase the size of the WinRE recovery partition. Once the partition has adequate disk space, users can navigate to Start > Settings > Windows Update > Check for updates to receive and install the update.
For those looking for assistance, previous workarounds have been documented, including a manual Recovery drive resize guide (dated: July 21, 2024) and a PowerShell script.
