"0x80070643 - ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE" error isn't fixable in Windows 10, says Microsoft

Microsoft has recently admitted that it won’t release an update for the “0x80070643 – ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE” error in Windows 10.

It is worth noting that on January 9th Microsoft released KB5034122 and KB503412 as a part of the first Patch Tuesday updates of 2024 for Windows 10 and 11, respectively. 

Previously, in an article, Microsoft detailed another security fix for a BitLocker Secure Boot bypass vulnerability. In the article, the Redmond giant mentioned that this security flaw might allow bad actors to bypass BitLocker encryption. And, it is possible if they get physical access to a PC with vulnerabilities. 

However, the company addressed the issue with WinRE (Windows Recovery Environment) updates KB5034441 and KB5034440 on Windows 10 and Windows 11, respectively. 

The company further warned that the “0x80070643 – ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE” error message might be visible while installing the WinRE WIM (Windows Imaging Format) update. And, the possible reason behind this was insufficient space on the recovery partition. 

Microsoft said that it would release a fix for the same and confirmed that users without WinRE partition could skip the KB5034441 update altogether. But, it seems there’s no automatic resolution for the same.

Microsoft confirms it can’t fix the “0x80070643 – ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE” at least in Windows 10

The company recently confirmed that the automatic resolution for the “0x80070643 – ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE” issue won’t be available with future updates. However, the company detailed manual steps that you can try to complete the installation of KB5034441 update of affected devices. Microsoft says:

The WinRE partition requires 250 megabytes of free space. Devices which do not have sufficient free space will need to increase the size of the partition via manual action. For guidance on making this change, review the following resources:

• A code script can be used to extend the partition size. A sample script has been provided in the documentation for adding an update package to WinRE. See Extend the Windows RE Partition.
• Guidance to manually change the WinRE partition size can additionally be found in KB5028997: Instructions to manually resize your partition to install the WinRE update.

Completion of these manual steps will allow the installation of this update to succeed.

Summing up, it seems Microsoft has indirectly admitted that it can’t fix “0x80070643 – ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE” issue at least in Windows 10.

We hope that this doesn’t happen with Windows 11 as the issue is still haunting the users. Hopefully, we will see a fix for the same, fingers crossed!