A Windows bug has been affecting users for many months, causing difficulties in installing updates. Updates KB5034441 for Windows 11 and KB5034440 for Windows 10 are particularly troublesome, often failing with error code 0x80070643 or 0x80070643 – ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE, which halts the installation process.
These updates are essential for addressing security vulnerabilities, so it’s important to install them without delay. But what should you do if the installation fails? What is causing this problem?
The issue arises because your Windows recovery partition is not large enough to complete the update. This results in the update to the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) failing.
Microsoft has not yet resolved the problem, but they have provided some instructions for users to try. However, these instructions are somewhat complex and require a certain level of technical knowledge.
Here’s what to do: First, ensure your WinRE version is up-to-date. Then, check if your Windows recovery partition is at least 250 MB in size. If it’s too small, you will need to resize it. If your WinRE is already updated or there is no WinRE partition, this error will not appear during the update installation.
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: