For several months, a persistent Windows bug has been hindering some users from successfully installing updates. Specifically, updates KB5034441 for Windows 11 and KB5034440 for Windows 10 have been problematic, often failing with the error code 0x80070643 or 0x80070643 – ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE, which stops the entire installation process.
Given that these updates are intended to patch critical security vulnerabilities, it’s crucial to install them promptly. But what can you do if the installation repeatedly fails? What’s the underlying cause?
The root of the problem lies in the size of your Windows recovery partition, which isn’t large enough to accommodate the update. This deficiency causes the update to the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) to fail.
Although Microsoft has not yet fully resolved the issue, they have provided some self-help instructions. However, these instructions are not straightforward and require a certain level of technical expertise.
To address the problem, start by verifying if your WinRE version is up-to-date. Next, check if your Windows recovery partition is at least 250 MB in size. If it’s too small, you’ll need to resize it. If WinRE is already updated or no WinRE partition is present, this error will not occur when installing the updates.
Microsoft explains exactly how to solve the 0x80070643 problem for Windows 10 and Windows 11 and, if necessary, how to adjust the size of the recovery partition in these documents:
