The Windows 10 October 2018 update has reportedly been wiping files from customers’ PCs after installation.
The operating system’s second annual update has been plagued with issues - from the Edge browser and apps being unable to connect to the internet, to certain driver incompatibilities blocking installation.
But the hardest hitting has been the reported mass deletion of user files - with some instances wiping hundreds of gigabytes from installed PCs.
"I have just updated my windows using the October update (10, version 1809) it deleted all my files of 23 years in amount of 220gb,” said one user on Microsoft’s support forum. “This is unbelievable, I have been using Microsoft products since 1995 and nothing like that ever happened to me,"
Rolling back the update doesn’t appear to restore lost files either, with regular disk usage quickly overwriting space marked as available.
As far as I can tell, my computer downloaded the latest Windows 10 update around 3pm today and during that process it unlinked my Documents directory then unpacked its own setup files that overwrote my own files.
— Windows 10 deleted my cat (@MakatiCub) October 4, 2018
I am so angry at Microsoft right now - if this is the case.
The issue appears to have been reported in pre-release preview builds. If so, Microsoft has let a major reported bug slip through to release. The developer has since taken the update offline for repair, advising users who downloaded the update manually to “wait until new media is available.”
In any case - it’s probably worth backing up before letting Windows Update loose on your machine.
