Latest Windows 11 Security Update Is Reportedly Bricking Some SSDs And Hard Drives

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Your Drive Could Die After Windows 11's New Update!

Story Highlight
  • New report reveals that Windows 11’s latest security update, ‘KB5063878’, is causing some SSDs and HDDs to fail.
  • The issue occurs with a large number of writing sequences happening on the drive.
  • Not all SSDs are facing this issue, but the ones with Phison controllers are the most exposed.

Windows 11 has received a new security update that users may want to skip. The update titled ‘KB5063878’ is reportedly causing several SSDs and HDDs to brick after a considerable amount of data is being written on them.

User Nekorusukii on X reported an SSD failure while updating Cyberpunk 2077 on his system. According to the user, he had just installed the Windows 11 security update a few days prior.

Why it matters: Windows 11 has been a bumpy ride, and just when it was starting to stabilize, a massive drive failure issue has occurred. Users risk losing valuable data and their entire drives due to this security update.

windows 11 security update bricks pcs
User Testing The Cause Of Drive Failure That Resulted From The Recent Update. || Source: X

As per Nekorusukii’s testing, this failure can be replicated once with the SSDs having a 60% usage rate or 50 GB of continuous writing.

After a prolonged period of writing, the OS apparently stops recognizing the SSD. Rebooting temporarily resolves the issue, but the problem recurs with similar write activity. In some cases, though, restarting completely loses the drive. 

Moreover, this problem isn’t just exclusive to SSDs; it happens on HDDs, too. Nekorusukii has also revealed that SSDs with Phison controllers onboard are the most likely to suffer from failures.

Fortunately, not all SSDs are exposed to this issue, but only specific models. NichePCGamer compiled a list of SSDs that exhibit failures, which are:

At the time of writing, neither Microsoft nor SSD manufacturers has acknowledged the issue. It is not being widely reported by users either.

As such, we advise users to avoid prolonged writing sequences on the drives mentioned above until Microsoft or the drive manufacturers develop a solution.

Have you encountered such an issue? Let us know in the comments below, or at the official Tech4Gamers Forums.

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