A serious flaw in Microsoft’s recent Windows 11 updates is reportedly causing solid-state drives and hard disk drives to fail completely, prompting the tech giant to work urgently with hardware partners on a solution.
Critical Updates Trigger Drive Failures
Two Windows 11 24H2 updates released in August 2025 are at the center of the controversy: the KB5063878 security update and the KB5062660 preview update. These patches are causing data corruption and complete drive failures on certain SSD and HDD models when users perform intensive file operations.
The issue was first documented by a Japanese PC building enthusiast who observed drives with Phison NAND controllers disappearing from the operating system during heavy write operations. Testing revealed that symptoms typically emerge on SSDs with over 60% capacity usage after approximately 50GB of continuous writing.
The failures occur during demanding tasks such as writing large files or transferring multiple files simultaneously. What makes this particularly concerning is that while some affected drives can be restored after a system restart, others remain permanently inaccessible even after rebooting.
Hardware at Risk
The problem appears to disproportionately affect drives with specific controller architectures, though the scope extends across multiple manufacturers:
Phison-controlled drives face the highest risk, particularly those using the PS5012-E12 controller. DRAM-less models from Phison show vulnerabilities at even lower write volumes, making them especially susceptible to failure.
Other affected hardware includes SanDisk Extreme Pro drives, Corsair Force MP600 models, KIOXIA EXCERIA PLUS G4 and other KIOXIA M.2 SSDs, Maxio SSD drives, and devices with InnoGrit controllers.
The breadth of affected hardware suggests the issue lies within Windows’ storage management systems rather than with any single manufacturer’s design flaws.
Industry Response and Collaboration
While Microsoft has not issued an official statement acknowledging the widespread SSD failures, Phison has confirmed active collaboration with the software giant to address the problem. A Phison spokesperson emphasized their commitment to resolving the disruption, stating they have “promptly engaged industry stakeholders” and are “working with partners” on a solution.
Separately, Microsoft is addressing a related issue where reset and recovery options have become non-functional across multiple Windows versions following recent updates. This secondary problem affects Windows 11 versions 23H2 and 22H2, as well as various Windows 10 versions.
The company is preparing an Out-of-Band update to fix the reset and recovery problems, with a manual download expected before the next scheduled security release on September 9, 2025. However, a dedicated fix for the SSD failures may require additional development time as Microsoft continues investigating the underlying cause.
Immediate Safety Measures
Until Microsoft releases a comprehensive fix, users should exercise caution with large-scale file operations to protect their data:
- Limit large file writing operations, particularly those involving tens of gigabytes of data
- Batch file transfers rather than moving multiple large files simultaneously
- Extract compressed archives gradually, processing smaller groups of files rather than extracting everything at once
- Monitor drive usage levels, as drives over 60% capacity appear more vulnerable
