Chkdsk can damage ssd file system on Windows 10 20H2 – update

Users of Windows 10 20H2 with update KB4592438 report that the tool Chkdsk can damage the file system of SSDs. After running the disk check command line tool, systems no longer boot according to the messages.

The problem occurs if users have deployed update KB4592438 on Windows 10 20H2 and then run chkdsk c: / f on the system. With that, Windows performs disk check and automatically makes changes in case of problems. A school systems administrator reports on the Planet3DNow forum that after that seven systems could no longer boot and showed a blue screen of death message.

Other members of the forum confirm the problems and report that they also occur when running a system in a virtual machine. When using Windows 10 20H2 without update KB4592438, the problems do not occur. Microsoft released this update in early December. The update fixes issues with the old Edge browser and Office products, according to Microsoft. The update has also been released for Windows 10 2004, so it is to be assumed that that version may also crash after running Chkdsk on SSDs.

The issue has been reported to Microsoft through the Feedback Hub. The maker of Windows 10 reports that a ‘small number’ of users are known to have problems with KB4592438, but as far as is known, no update is available that resolves the problem.

Update: Microsoft reports that the problem has been fixed and the company is also publishing steps for affected systems.

Source: Planet3DNow