Windows Update Bug, October 2018
This page is saved for archival reference, as Windows 11 has now been released and Windows 12 is anticipated.
Also see: Windows 10 and 11 Books and References from Amazon
This is a cautionary computer tip, especially urging home computer users to back up their computer documents and pictures if you have not already done so.
As of the start of October, multiple computer news outlets indicate that significant numbers of Windows 10 users are reporting loss of files - particularly Documents and Pictures folder files - following installation of the Windows 10 update in distribution this month.
Microsoft currently is automatically updating is issuing a new upgrade to version 1809 this month (from version 1803). Some users who have updated manually ahead of the scheduled release have reported on documents and pictures getting deleted.
One user reports on Twitter, "Heads up to anyone updating windows. Apparently, if you have documents saved in your user directory, i.e. users/JohnDoe, and not one drive, the update will delete EVERYTHING in that location. So if your "Documents" or "Pictures" don't have a one drive symbol, MIGRATE IMMEDIATELY!"
This sounded like a scare story to me at first, but in searching around I'm finding the reports seem to be corroborated by multiple news and computer blog outlets.
One Reddit thread comments, "Stories like this are adding up, and they're a cautionary tale. We can't independently confirm that this bug is real at this time-none of our machines have been affected-but we're seeing enough chatter to take this seriously."
At minimum, this raises the importance of backing up your user files.
One way of doing this is to purchase a flash drive or an external hard drive. A flash drive is fine for users who have only a few files but don't want to lose them. Most people backing up to a flash drive do so by copying folders manually from their c:\ drive to the flash drive.
An external hard drive is better if you have a large number of files or want to minimize the risk of a flash drive going bad - hard drives are more reliable. Using a hard drive works best if you set up the automatic backup program built into Windows 10. Most home computer users doing routine emailing, web searches, personal projects, and limited Internet use such as Facebook or YouTube pr
obably will find use of an external hard drive the best.
Another way is to use a cloud service GDrive and OneDrive are free, and most Windows users have one or the other available to them. Persons actively using the Internet and either a Google account or a Microsoft account may find the cloud service to be the best method.
A fourth way is to subscribe to a service like Carbonite. Computer users doing business on their computer or actively handling a large stream of new files may find subscribing to a real-time cloud service the best.
There have been some reports of persons "losing" their files then regaining them after doing driver updates through Windows. Others report no such luck.
Coinciding with this, there are some computers with Windows 10 that have processors which cannot handle the new update. These are supposedly being automatically detected by Microsoft remotely and the company says that the update is programmed not to download onto computers with an incompatible chip. For that reason, users are advised not to activate the update manually but rather to let it go through its normal automatic installation routine.
Windows 10 Home edition, which most of us are using, does not give much control over whether a Windows update installs or not. (Enterprise edition has more controls, but few of us have that on our computers.)
|
|
