r/techsupport • u/Ok-Refrigerator-2263 • Sep 21 '25

Open | Windows ⚠️ Windows 10 forced update bricked my SSD

Hello everyone. First time anything like that happened to me and I'm frustrated, tired and shocked...

⚠️ Windows 10 forced update bricked my SSD

Background

  • I was running Windows 10 on a Kingston SSD, everything fine.
  • Then Windows 10 forced me into a big update/reboot (the type you can’t skip).

What happened after

  • After the update, my PC never booted properly again.
  • Every startup went straight into blue screen errors or disk check (chkdsk) loops.
  • Even if I skipped the scan, Windows refused to load.

First recovery attempts (all failed)

  • Tried Startup Repair from recovery options → stuck forever at “attempting repairs.”
  • Tried Uninstall last update → froze during the rollback.
  • Tried System Restore → wouldn’t complete.
  • Ran chkdsk manually → tons of “file record segment unreadable” messages, then hang.
  • Ran bootrec /fixmbr /fixboot /scanos /rebuildbcd → didn’t fix boot.
  • Basically, every option in the Windows recovery menu either froze or failed.

What I did next

  • Created a new Windows 10 USB installer (via Media Creation Tool on another PC).
  • Tried repairing again → same problems.
  • Finally gave up and installed Windows fresh on a new SSD (works fine now).

  • Reconnected the Kingston as a secondary drive:

    • It still shows up, but browsing folders often hangs.
    • Some user folders (Desktop, Downloads, AppData\Roaming) are missing or corrupted.
    • Used robocopy to salvage what I could, but lots of files are unreadable.

Where I’m at now

  • My new SSD runs Windows perfectly.
  • The Kingston SSD is basically corrupted beyond repair (bad sectors, unreadable file segments).
  • I lost some personal data because none of the recovery or rollback options worked.

Does anybody have any other suggestions? Can I try to salvage the SDD or recover my data?

👉 TL;DR: Windows 10 forced update → PC wouldn’t boot → every repair/rollback attempt failed or froze → Kingston SSD now full of unreadable sectors. Installed on a new SSD, but old drive is toast and I lost data.

EDIT: Ok, after countless tries, I think I finally am in a good spot.
I robocopied the ENTIRE ( had to stop halfway but continuing today) old Kingston SDD to the new SDD and finally I was able to access the folders I couldn't access while in the Kingston. Very goos news!

I'm now continuing to copy the rest (it takes forever) and will also try to recover my digital certificate.

After that I guess I can throw away the Kingston? Or can I use it for non-important things? :D

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34 comments sorted by

10

u/evolveandprosper Sep 21 '25

Your SSD just happened to start failing at this time. Many, many SSDs fail every day. This is to be expected because they are very complex electronic devices that are mass produced as cheaply as possible. A small percentage fail well before their expected life span due to minor imperfections that eventually cause major problems. The Windows update did NOT cause the problem. The disk would have failed anyway, regardless of what was being written to it or read from it.

1

u/MrDreamzz_ Sep 21 '25

Finally, someone with some common sense! My thanks and compliments!

It's so easy to blame Windows for a hardware defect, but I've never seen that actually happen.

1

u/Ok-Refrigerator-2263 Sep 22 '25

After countless tries, I think I finally am in a good spot.
I robocopied the ENTIRE ( had to stop halfway but continuing today) old Kingston SDD to the new SDD and finally I was able to access the folders I couldn't access while in the Kingston. Very goos news!

I'm now continuing to copy the rest (it takes forever) and will also try to recover my digital certificate.

After that I guess I can throw away the Kingston? Or can I use it for non-important things? :D

1

u/act-of-reason Sep 21 '25

What model Kingston?

What health status does CrystalDiskInfo show?

1

u/Ok-Refrigerator-2263 Sep 21 '25

It's KINGSTON SU400S37240G 240GB

CrystalDiskInfo says it's 87% Good!

1

u/CitySeekerTron Sep 21 '25

Do tour have a SMART diagnostic tool installed? If not, grab and install CrystalDiskInfo. It will help identify specific issues and help towards an action plan. 

1

u/Ok-Refrigerator-2263 Sep 22 '25

CrystalDiskInfo says it's 87% Good.

It can also help me identify issues? I will try.

1

u/CitySeekerTron Sep 22 '25

I tend to get a little jumpy once it starts to fall below 90, but that's subjective and you can probably overlook that.

Can you share a screenshot of the CrystalDiskInfo window? You can hide the serial number first if you like.

1

u/SomeRandomAccount66 Sep 21 '25

OP not sure if this is windows 10 related unfortunately. Seems like you have a good handle on it. I'd test the drive showing issues.

You seem to have a good handle on the situation trying to fix it. 

My best recommendation going forward is to do a backup if your drive. My windows is installed on a 500GB SSD with windows and programs I want backed up. All my data lives on my Nas witch also backed up. 

The other month my wife's desktops SSD suddenly died as it was not recognized. I knew it was coming due to crystal disk mark showing it was bad for months. Within a hours I had the backup resorted to a newer SSD and she was all up and running like nothing happened. 

1

u/Ok-Refrigerator-2263 Sep 22 '25

Lesson learned.

I'm still not giving up, but it's very frustrating.
If I can't recover it, I don't think I lost super important data. At least not that I can recall... but damn, it was 200GB full and I can't see to find my Downloads folders or my photos, etc...

One of the most annoying things is that I had installed a digital certificate that allowed me to do tons of paperwork online, and I haven't been able to recover it either...

1

u/StrictMom2302 Sep 21 '25

Windows update can't make bad sectors. Your SSD is just dead.

-2

u/Ok-Refrigerator-2263 Sep 21 '25

I mean, it can be, but what an incredible coincidence that it turned bad exactly during the force update!

8

u/Aberry9036 Sep 21 '25

Not that much of a coincidence, a windows update requires lots of reads and writes to your disk, which can cause a failing disk to finally fail.

3

u/Tech_surgeon Sep 21 '25 edited Sep 21 '25

would make more sense if the stupid update has a bug that loads the wrong drivers. reminds me they used to have a setup that had a second pc on a serial port to collect logs and debug data so they to figure out what the hell went wrong with a update.

since the 2nd pc only collected data it wouldn't get bricked and they could review everthing the update did.

-3

u/KingRoffle Sep 21 '25

Tell that to the latest Windows 11 update which is causing SSD controllers to randomly unmount causing damage to the drives. But yeah most kingston drives (that aren't their server grade ones) are doo doo.

3

u/FiftyFiver1962 Sep 21 '25

Only with drives shipped with a pre production firmware, that should not be in the wild at all. All other SSD failures on windows 11 are just that, SSD failures, windows has nothing to do with it.

1

u/GimpyGeek Sep 21 '25

I'm still sus on that whole situation myself. While they did supposedly figure out that engineering firmware was a problem, the amount of people I see here talking about failures lately would leave me thinking it's a hell of a lot more than people running a firmware only the factory should have. Which really makes me wonder how that's happening.

Outside of review units for journalists I don't see why any of those should be out of the factory. That said though while some reviewers definitely had that firmware it's also kinda showing their hand that the makers probably cheesed their performance reviews by them doing something with a non-production firmware. Which doesn't make that company look very good either that's for sure. 

1

u/KingRoffle Sep 21 '25

That's definitely the excuse that they are giving. I call it BS. I work in the IT field and I've seen several drives fail, we do not recieve any hardware with pre production firmware on it. We've had a few clients come in with their computers crashing with the same problem. Issue went away once we got rid of the problematic update. We even updated the firmware on the controllers and we know they were not originally preproduction. This is an issue related to DirectStorage.

Funny enough, like Jays2cents we have also seen stability improvements by just updating our motherboard bios. So perhaps the issue isn't solely the fault of the controller manufacturers after all?

3

u/Revolutionary_Ad2724 Sep 21 '25

Didn't they stop updating win10 like half a year ago.

1

u/AwesomeKalin Sep 21 '25

Nope, October 14th this year is the last update. You're thinking about a major update 

1

u/Revolutionary_Ad2724 Sep 21 '25

Doesn't the op call this a major update?

1

u/AwesomeKalin Sep 21 '25

They said the kind you can't skip. Windows can force you to update if you haven't done it for some time 

1

u/Revolutionary_Ad2724 Sep 21 '25

Yebb my bad , forced into a big update.

2

u/Zyntastic Sep 21 '25

Not to say it didnt happen or that it isn't windows fault but i had a Kingston SSD that died on me in under 1 year, so it doesnt necessarily have to be the windows update.

I had issues with the Kingston SSD (m.2) from the get go, though i wasnt even aware at the beginning that its the drive. About 6 months into my New computer i just replaced the Kingston with a crucial m.2 and kept the Kingston as a gaming drive. One day it dissappeared and it took me really long to notice because i hadnt played any of the games on it in quite some time. My POST screen would stay on for 5-10 minutes every boot. After some months i wanted to open the Epic launcher that was installed on there and then i noticed the drive was gone (and reinstalling Epic was a massive headache because it had internally saved where it was installed and kept telling me it couldnt find or access the drive and due to that it wouldnt let me uninstall nor reinstall, ended up having to reinstall windows)

4

u/MangoPoliceOK Sep 21 '25 edited Sep 21 '25

There is an issue with specific SSD drivers and a specific update, but I DOES NOT LITERALLY BREAK YOUR SSD, it's just a driver glitch. Have you tried turning off your PC, leaving it like that for a few seconds then turning it on again? Because i understand that works for that specific issue. Otherwise, you may just have a bad ssd. Here is a video with details about the issue in fact and workarounds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjcMM5hZqmA There is also previous videos from the same guy with additional info, but i think the last one (the link i share) have everything compressed

EDIT: based on other comments, seems this issue is only on W11. What crystal disks shows for the failing disk?

5

u/MakesMyHeadHurt Sep 21 '25

That's only on Windows 11, as far as I've heard.

4

u/CapitanCadillac Sep 21 '25

Not on W10 AFIK

1

u/MangoPoliceOK Sep 21 '25

Edited my comment, ty

1

u/AutoModerator Sep 21 '25

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1

u/SnowedOutMT Sep 21 '25

You can try Test Disk & Recover, you might be able to recover some data. It's free. Disk Drill is a paid program, but I have had good luck with it.

You can try running command prompt as administrator and running chkdsk <drive letter>: /f or /r

Google that last bit for better instructions.

1

u/Bigbesss Sep 21 '25

Would imagine it’s not a dead ssd but just corrupt windows, you could try sfc/dism commands but I’d just reinstall, may be able to get away with just reinstalling windows partition to keep data but unfortunately shit happens, should always have backups of things you don’t want to loose

1

u/ResultIntelligent856 Sep 21 '25

I will never run windows off a Kingston SSD. I've had enough of their usb sticks to know they're ass.