Windows 10 October Update Is Deleting Content, Users Beware

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Earlier this week, at Microsoft’s hardware event in NYC, the company announced that the latest update to Windows 10,1809, is now available for everyone. While the company did test several candidates before releasing this particular build, a handful of users are reporting serious issues.

What started as a thread on Reddit, has spread to Microsoft’s support forums and Twitter, the primary issue is that after installing the update, users are reporting that content inside of documents, pictures, music, and videos are gone. Others are reporting that they are unable to access partitions as well following the update.

Typically, you could locate the content in Windows.old but those who are impacted by this issue are saying that this folder is empty following the update. User Picaresque on Reddit stated:

I upgraded three devices yesterday (desktop PC, laptop, Surface) – on two the upgrade went perfectly, but on the desktop PC one profile had the documents and pictures folder deleted. Completely gone, nothing in Windows.old either. Restored to the previous Windows version, but files were still missing.

What’s unknown right now is how widespread this issue actually is at this time, but when you’re working on a scale of hundreds of millions, it doesn’t take a large percentage to impact a significant number of users. That being said, you may want to hold off on upgrading while the scope of this issue is determined.

If you do attempt the update and see an issue about an Intel driver warning, do not proceed. This bug is causing excessive CPU usage on some machines but does not appear to be related to the disappearing content.

Now is a good time to remind you that it is imperative to backup your data. This could be storing it on OneDrive, a local external copy, or somewhere else but the point here is that thinking it will be safe by only keeping it on your PC, is not a sound strategy.

As we learn more about this issue, I’ll keep you updated about what Microsoft is saying but for now, upgrade at your own risk.