Microsoft checks SSD failures due to Windows update

Microsoft is investigating a problem with the Windows update KB5063878 and the update KB5062660 that was included in it. There have been isolated reports, primarily from Japan, that the two updates can cause disk failures. The focus is on SSDs, but HDDs could also be affected. However, the reports from those affected are limited. The risk of a complete defect therefore does not appear to be too high.

According to the report, data carriers are often no longer accessible for large data transfers of more than 50 gigabytes and disappear from the drive overview. In most cases, the disk reappears after a restart – However, SSDs occasionally remained unusable in tests. Issues occurred with models from Western Digital (WD), SK Hynix, Crucial, HP and XPG, which use different controllers. Other manufacturers may also be impacted.

The problem is said to lie with Microsoft

Phison is the first industry player to respond to the reports. The company is one of the largest SSD controller developers in the world and supplies numerous manufacturers. Phison also specifies entire SSD models for other companies. Phison told PC Watch in Japan that there were no problems with its own controllers and believes Microsoft is responsible. Microsoft is said to be investigating the issue.

In the update notes, Microsoft only mentions KB5063878 and KB5062660 as fixing security problems under Windows. However, the CSV list of the included files contains over 50,000 lines, including numerous entries relating to NVMe. NVMe is the data protocol for SSDs – Microsoft seems to have worked on this.

As the updates are security-relevant, they should ideally not be uninstalled manually. Users are best advised not to copy large files such as games to a data carrier until this has been clarified. The August Windows updates already had several issues, some of which Microsoft has already fixed.

(mma)