Windows 10 October Update May Wipe Files, Have Driver Issues

[USAFRet]

Exactly. Explorer edits the registry to point at the new locations of the Library and User folders. That is perhaps why when you point them to a non-default location, it wipes the directories. Some sort of 'sanity check' might be going out of control or even this might be intentionally malicious behavior to do a "I'm gonna punish you!" by someone working for Microsoft with malicious intentions.

Now I know people are going to accuse me of "Having my tin-foil hat on too tight!" but think about it for a second.
What would a malicious state actor trying to steal information not want people doing in Windows or any other OS? Answer: Moving the directories where they put their data or putting it on a separate drive.

No.
The vast majority of my "data" lives on other drives.
I have a whole 250GB SSD, devoted solely to photo work. Those files never ever touch the "Pictures" library.
Having multiple physical drives is very, very common. My system has 6.

Having your Library redirected to a different drive is no different than the default location, and hides nothing from the OS or the user.

I was going to test that redirection issue in the context of the 1809 update. I have a whole separate system for 'testing'.
I had set up the Documents, Pictures, and Music libraries in different locations.
A different folder, a different drive in the same system, a mapped drive letter to a whole different system.
Just to see what happened when this system updated. They pulled that Update before I got the change to try it.

 

[stdragon]

Folder Redirection is quite common in large enterprise environments. A GPO (Group Policy Object) is often created and deployed in an Active Directory environment (domain) to modify OS registry values. One such registry values would in fact be used for redirection.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/folder-redirection/folder-redirection-rup-overview

 

[jimmysmitty]

Folder Redirection is quite common in large enterprise environments. A GPO (Group Policy Object) is often created and deployed in an Active Directory environment (domain) to modify OS registry values. Once such registry values would in fact be used for redirection.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/folder-redirection/folder-redirection-rup-overview

True but it also redirects to a different drive, normally a shares storage on the server, and would reapply once Windows reloads even if the update removed those chances.

 

[smorizio]

the issue is that microsoft on the new build 1809 it trying to move all users from restone fork build to the new restone fork build. and it not working right. as a tester here there tossing new parts and changing parts of windows 10 on a weekly builds. i think that when there trying to move to the new redston build they should have stopped and then started on working the os from the core and just called it windows 11/12.

 

[stdragon]

Folder Redirection is quite common in large enterprise environments. A GPO (Group Policy Object) is often created and deployed in an Active Directory environment (domain) to modify OS registry values. Once such registry values would in fact be used for redirection.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/folder-redirection/folder-redirection-rup-overview

True but it also redirects to a different drive, normally a shares storage on the server, and would reapply once Windows reloads even if the update removed those chances.

Right. So in theory, it should be a moot issue once the OS reboots and syncs back to a new offline cache from the redirected UNC path on a network share.

I'd be gobsmacked if part of the update process included an explicit command to delete. I can't for the life of me rationalize why, but if it was coded to do that, it could in theory wack the files that were redirected as well. In which case, a restore by the server/network admin would be required from backup.

 

[Peter Martin]

I saw a windows 10 update once switch my one drive to just keep everything in the cloud and nothing local so it wiped out my local stuff and kept everything in the cloud and this looks like the same thing. everything has bugs

I always stay synced so everything is in the cloud

 

[jimmysmitty]

Installs update forcefully yesterday from microsoft website. Wakes up to this article <shoots self in foot>

Did anything disappear from your system?
If yours is like mine, no.

This is not a universal issue that affected everyone who upgraded.

I have no missing files that I can tell yet however notifications in the action centre show there are notifications then when I click on them there is nothing there. Also the pc seems to be running notably more sluggish

I had the exact opposite on my work system. It went from OK to snappy as hell. Even logging in is faster.

 

[Peter Martin]

if it can make an A6 encode video faster then I am all for it. lol

 

[alextheblue]

XP ran great on both PCs and the laptop I had running it at the time.

Indeed my personal XP systems ran well enough. But I kept them clean. Always protected with third-party AV and firewall, careful what I clicked on, patched up, tweaked, drivers current, no random useless software installed, and I cleaned the registry periodically. Even so it wasn't exactly what I'd call flawless, especially at launch. Over the years they fixed it up quite a bit (hurray patches). The driver model was still kind of junk, and it wasn't hard for iffy drivers or game software to crash the OS. But overall yeah, I did fine.

But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about putting these machines in the hands of your average home PC user (sometimes in business too but that's another story). They'll have an XP system nicely wrecked up in no time flat. Even if they manage to somehow get some form of security software operational, and throw the occasional patch on it, they'll still ah heck it up. Then you have to come in and clean up the mess. I have had fewer problems with newer versions of Windows (7 and later mostly) and non-techy users. Win 10 has been the best in that regard, though I certainly don't encourage people to rush patches. I do on my system though, usually. I'm running October right now... including on one system that has been upgraded from 8.0 Pro all the way up.

Semi-related: My personal favorite version of "XP" was actually the Server-derived 64-bit version. I ran that for years on my main rig. Extremely solid, and capable.

 

[Christopher1]

Update wiped out my wireless adapter driver and replaced with a generic one , which wouldn't work at all. No connection after update,

How old is your computer? If it is anything over 8 years old, you are asking for the latest Windows 10 version to not work on your computer. I had to retire an old A135 Toshiba because of that issue.

I did not bemoan it because for 300 dollars I could get a computer that exceeded that computers specs by nearly 200%.

 

[xstreammike]

If only I read that earlier!
I updated W10 without back up - and "my doc" are gone... And for a few days was searching on good software. Recovered with DiskInternals software (Uneraser). They have a discount for software all October. Maybe, for someone that information be helpful
PS Back up! Don't forget about it)))

 

[xstreammike]

I updated W10 without back up(I have no idea I need that!) - and "my doc" are gone... And for a few days was searching on good software. Recovered with DiskInternals software (Uneraser). They have a discount for software all October. Maybe, for someone that information be helpful
PS Back up! Don't forget about it)))

 

[stdragon]

If only I read that earlier!
I updated W10 without back up - and "my doc" are gone... And for a few days was searching on good software. Recovered with DiskInternals software (Uneraser). They have a discount for software all October. Maybe, for someone that information be helpful
PS Back up! Don't forget about it)))

Ok, so a few questions because I'm assuming we all want to know the circumstances of how this could have occurred; specifically me.

-Is this a custom built computer, or branded store bought (like Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc)?

-Were you already at version 1803 prior to updating to the Windows 10 October edition?

-Did you have Dropbox installed, or did you have OneDrive setup?

-Did you manually redirect your home folders (Desktop, My Documents, etc) to another drive or create custom libraries?

-What Anti-Virus program did you have installed?

 

[Peter Martin]

it's a good thing to sync with cloud and have backups as well. back up to at least 3 different forms a media, BD, external HDD and cloud are my choices

have fire-proof safe and store the BD and HDDs and maybe an offsite rotated every once in a while

 

[Danra]

Blaming the user/customer sounds like a Microsoft tactic that I hate to see tom'sHardware mimic. By the way, after updating to 1803 some of my programs would not function properly and a game, Dark Age of Camelot, that I have played since 2001 started kicking me back to desktop. After several attempts to "FIX" Windows 10, again, I was finally successful. Which fixes worked I do not know because I used multiple fixes each attempt.

 

[Peter Martin]

everything has bugs. sorry you don't like logical answers. and to everyone who says they don't test knows NOTHING about software testing to say the very least. you all just love to sling crap. if you are too stupid to back up, then you basically get what you deserve eventually. it's coming in one way or another.

also you can use linux if you don't like it. they have tonnes of bugs too.

so it failed on a few computers so far? out of what? a million installs--maybe in the thousands but you get the point? I would say they are freaking AWESOME at what they do. Go become a real software tester and we can talk.

 

[jimmysmitty]

Blaming the user/customer sounds like a Microsoft tactic that I hate to see tom'sHardware mimic. By the way, after updating to 1803 some of my programs would not function properly and a game, Dark Age of Camelot, that I have played since 2001 started kicking me back to desktop. After several attempts to "FIX" Windows 10, again, I was finally successful. Which fixes worked I do not know because I used multiple fixes each attempt.

Microsoft never blamed anyone and pulled the update due to the possible issue. I did some digging and saw it was happening to people with non-standard setups for their user folders or possibly due to OneDrive.

I stated that people who did not have a backup prior to this update are at fault for not having a backup. Think about it this way. The update was to push to people this week but you could manually start it last week. So anyone who updated last week had to start the update, it was not automatically started by Windows. If you were going to push an update that is known to be a full reinstall of the OS would you do it without a backup? Some of the people did it with a backup as old as 2016. Who would do that?

I did the update on my work PC and first thing I did before pushing it was made a copy of all local user folders just in case as I wanted to test it before possibly pushing it to other users.

If this was found after Microsoft pushed it to everyone then yea bad on them. But if a user pushed it themselves before the official push by Microsoft and didn't take the simple step of backing their PC up prior to it they have some liability.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Update wiped out my wireless adapter driver and replaced with a generic one , which wouldn't work at all. No connection after update,

How old is your computer? If it is anything over 8 years old, you are asking for the latest Windows 10 version to not work on your computer. I had to retire an old A135 Toshiba because of that issue.

I did not bemoan it because for 300 dollars I could get a computer that exceeded that computers specs by nearly 200%.

Computer was built last year.