tools

Microsoft has acknowledged an issue with its recent August 2025 security updates that prevent users from resetting or recovering their systems using built-in Windows tools. According the company, the bug affects older versions of Windows 11 including 23H2 and 22H2 as well as Windows 10 22H2, Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019/2021, and Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2019/2021.

Installing this month’s security updates can potentially break the Windows recovery options for users. Those attempting to reinstall Windows without losing their personal files through the Reset this PC feature may run into failures. Similarly, the Fix problems using Windows Update feature, which attempts to reinstall the current version of the OS on your device while preserving all your apps, documents, and settings, is also broken. Microsoft has also warned that the bug could affect IT administrators who rely on the RemoteWipe configuration service provider to reset devices remotely.

According to testing by Windows Latest, attempts to reset a PC on Windows 11 23H2 using the Reset this PC feature causes the process to start and then roll back immediately, leaving the reset incomplete. After this failure, no personal files are lost, but the recovery feature becomes unusable. Additionally, Windows doesn’t give any warning that the reset process can fail, meaning most people won’t realize there’s a problem until they actually try to reset their PC.

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Microsoft has confirmed that it is working on an out-of-band update to fix the issue on all affected platforms. Expect an emergency patch to roll out in the coming days, with further details to be shared once they become available.

While the Windows recovery bug does not affect users on the Windows 11 24H2 update, another serious issue has surfaced with August’s security patch which targets storage drives. The latest Windows 11 update KB5063878 is said to be causing storage drives to vanish under heavy workloads, particularly during large file transfers of 50GB or more. While most drives recover after a system reboot, in certain cases the SSDs are completely inaccessible with corrupted data partitions.

According to early analysis done by X user Nekorusukii (@Necoru_cat), the bug is possibly linked to how a storage device handles caching and metadata mapping. Microsoft is yet to formally recognize the flaw. leaving users that regularly deal with large data transfers in limbo.

Until Microsoft acknowledges and patches these issues, users should wait to reset or restore their systems. We can only hope that this new update rolls out soon.

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