August's Microsoft updates inadvertently erased Solid State Drives, and now are causing issues with PC resets and recovery on Windows systems.
Microsoft has recently announced an out-of-band update for specific versions of Windows 10 and Windows 11, following the discovery of a serious flaw in reset and recovery operations.
The issue, which has been severe enough to warrant an out-of-band update, is triggered by running key recovery processes such as 'Reset my PC', 'Fix problems using Windows Update', and 'RemoteWipe CSP'. This flaw, if left unaddressed, could potentially lead to a loss of data, particularly on systems that have recently been updated and have SSDs.
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has urged enterprises to ditch Windows 10 in light of this issue, and Microsoft has advised organisations that haven't yet deployed the August 2025 security update to apply the out-of-band update instead.
Microsoft has acknowledged the problem and apologised for any inconvenience and confusion caused by the issue. A Microsoft spokesperson stated, "We're aware of these reports and are investigating with our partners."
This is not the first time Microsoft has encountered issues with Windows updates. Last month, the company mistakenly flagged a non-security update issue as being resolved, only for it to return.
The administrative-specific Windows versions affected by this reset and recovery issue are Windows 11 versions 23H2 and 22H2, Windows 10 version 22H2, Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019/2021, and Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2019/2021. The issue is observed after installing the August 2025 Windows security update on client versions of Windows 10 and 11, but not server OSes nor Windows 11 24H2.
The problem with the August update also caused SSDs to disappear from view in systems that have been recently updated. Microsoft advises anyone still seeing the error to retry the upgrade process.
The full list of affected versions can be found on Microsoft's official website. The issue has been addressed in an out-of-band update, and users are encouraged to install it as soon as possible.
Interestingly, Windows 11 has overtaken Windows 10 in popularity, and the deadline for Windows 10 end of life is approaching. It is crucial for Windows 10 users to keep their systems updated to avoid such issues and ensure the security of their data.
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