I'm trying to upgrade my Windows 10 PC to Windows 11, but I have a dual-boot setup with Linux. The Windows 11 installer keeps failing with error code 0x80070003. It seems to get stuck checking for space. Do I need to temporarily remove my Linux partition for the upgrade to work, or is there a way to make the installer recognize my Windows partition correctly? I really don't want to break my dual-boot.
Yeah this is common. I had this issue when upgrading a dual-boot machine. From what I have seen, the Windows 11 installer can sometimes get confused by non-Windows partitions. I temporarily disconnected my Linux drive, ran the upgrade, and reconnected it after—everything worked fine and my bootloader was intact. Let me know if that works.
Yeah, that's a good call. Also, make sure your main Windows drive actually has the full 64GB of free space it needs, as the check can fail if it's even a little short.
You could also try running the Windows Update troubleshooter first, as it can sometimes clear up these installer errors. Another option is to temporarily disable your Linux bootloader from within Windows before starting the upgrade.