Is the recent Windows update really bricking SSDs? Here's what we know so far

If you’ve been following tech news lately, you’ve probably seen some pretty scary headlines about Windows 11 supposedly killing people’s SSDs. The whole thing started a couple weeks back when users began freaking out about their drives vanishing into thin air after installing Microsoft’s latest security update. But is it real, or just another case of internet panic?

Here’s what actually went down. On August 12, Microsoft pushed out KB5063878 as part of their monthly security patch dump. Nothing unusual there – it was meant to protect against some nasty malware called Lumma stealer. But then one report on X highlighted the potential flaw, after which other users also jumped into sharing their experiences.

Users reported their SSDs would just disappear from Windows, but only under certain conditions. We’re talking about scenarios where someone was moving huge files (over 50GB) while their drive was already pretty full, like 60% or more. When this happened, boom – the SSD would vanish from the system entirely.

Major outlets jumped on this story fast. Tom’s Hardware, PC Gamer, Windows Central, and others all covered it, and user reports kept pouring in. Reddit also lit up with a lot of discussion surrounding the news, with some people confimring that they ran into the same problem.

Microsoft wasn’t completely caught off guard, though. They told BleepingComputer that they’re “investigating with partners,” which is essentially corporate speak for, “we’re trying to figure out what the hell is happening.” Those partners included Phison, which makes controllers for tons of SSDs out there.

But here’s where things get interesting. After what Phison called “extensive testing,” which involved approximately 4,500 hours of putting drives through their paces, they came back with some surprising news. According to Tom’s Hardware’s latest reporting, Phison basically said “nope, not our problem.” They couldn’t find any connection between the Windows update and SSD failures.

This throws a wrench into the whole narrative. If one of the biggest controller manufacturers can’t reproduce the problem after testing for a few thousand hours, what’s really going on? It’s highly possible that we might be looking at a coincidence rather than causation. Maybe these drives were already on their way out, and the timing with the Windows update was just bad luck. But this is just speculation. 

So where does this leave regular Windows users? Well, if you’re paranoid about it (and honestly, who isn’t after reading all this), maybe avoid moving massive files around when your drive is nearly full. If you think you’re experiencing issues related to this update, you can always uninstall KB5063878 through Windows Update settings.

That said, the issue seems to be affecting such a tiny portion of the userbase that many have even been questioning that initial reporting. Especially considering the fact that the news broke based on one post on X for the most part.

Either way, hold off on the update for now until we have more details.