Microsoft confirms disappearing SSDs on Windows 11. Here’s how to avoid it

Problematic August 2025 Windows update KB5063878 is taking on ever greater proportions. Microsoft confirmed (via Windows Latest) that “we’re aware of these reports and are investigating with our partners.”

Microsoft is referring to reports from users that storage drives are suddenly disappearing from Windows after installing the August update. This apparently happens after users install updates for games such as Cyberpunk 2077 or Honkai: Star Rail.

What’s happening with missing SSDs?

As it turns out, Windows 11 update KB5063878 has a bug that can cause the SSD to “disappear” or the partition to appear as “RAW.” Because of this bug, File Explorer doesn’t show the storage drive—and the SSD can’t even be found in the BIOS.

However, the problem doesn’t only occur in connection with certain games. It’s due to the high write load caused by installing game updates, and it’s precisely the high write load that seems to cause Windows to no longer recognize an SSD after installing the August update.

Moreover, according to Windows Latest, the problem only occurs when an SSD is already more than 60 percent utilized and then around 50 GB or more of data is continuously written.

Long story short, most users shouldn’t actually run into this problem. However, in the rare case that you end up affected by it, you may notice one or more of these failures:

• File Explorer may hang or crash.
• SMART becomes unreadable.
• Input/output errors occur.
• The storage drive disappears.

What you should do if you’re affected

Sometimes a PC restart can resolve the problem, but the error can reoccur under repeat circumstances.

To be on the safe side, don’t install very large files and don’t write very large amounts of data to your SSDs if the August 2025 update is installed on your system—at least until Microsoft provides a patch.

Update KB5063878 can also cause other problems, but Microsoft has already released emergency patches for those.