Microsoft's August 2025 security updates cause recovery issues on Windows 10 and Windows 11 computers
Microsoft has confirmed that its August 2025 security updates are causing problems for users on certain versions of Windows 10 and older Windows 11 builds (22H2 and 23H2).
The affected updates include Windows 11 23H2 and 22H2 (KB5063875), Windows 10 22H2, Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021, Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021 (KB5063709), and Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019, Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2019 (KB5063877).
The issue causes failures when users try to use the Reset this PC feature to reinstall Windows while keeping files, or when using the Fix problems using Windows Update tool to reinstall Windows preserving apps, files, and settings. This also affects the RemoteWipe service for remote resetting.
Regarding the storage drive issue linked to update KB5063878 (Windows 11 version 24H2 released August 12, 2025), reports have emerged of serious SSD and HDD problems. The update can cause drives to disappear from Windows, generate I/O errors, make SMART data unreadable, or even lead to unrecoverable data corruption. This problem appears isolated but severe and is not limited to any single SSD controller brand.
The issue tends to happen when an SSD is over 60% full and experiences large continuous write operations (~50 GB or more). Microsoft is actively investigating this storage corruption issue but considers it a very limited subset of users affected.
In certain cases, the SSDs are completely inaccessible with corrupted data partitions after a system reboot. Users dealing with large data transfers are currently left in a precarious situation without a patch from Microsoft.
Early analysis suggests the August 2025 security issue may be linked to storage device handling of caching and metadata mapping.
Microsoft has acknowledged an issue with its August 2025 security updates but as of now, has not formally acknowledged the new bug related to large file transfers and storage drive disappearance. The new update addressing these issues is yet to be officially announced by Microsoft.
Until Microsoft officially addresses and fixes these issues, users are advised to postpone system resets or restores. It is advisable to delay installing these particular August 2025 updates until fixes are confirmed stable and released by Microsoft.
For the latest updates and fixes related to these bugs, users can monitor official Microsoft Windows release health dashboards. Trusted tech news sites like BleepingComputer, Windows Latest, and Windows Central also have detailed coverage and ongoing investigations of these issues.
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