Windows 10 1809 Update Disaster - MS's worst nightmare realized
On Oct 2, MS made the formal release of Windows 10 1809 Update available to the public. Like many that day I updated three machines that my family members use as their daily drivers - all of which were NOT part of Windows Insiders - so where running the April creators update..
I was lucky in that all 3 machines updated successfully. One took nearly 3 hours - but updated. My luck may have been due to the fact that for each - I logged in using my MS account versus my wife's, daughters and grand-daughters account which had no real data on the device expect for a few downloads.
But many were not so lucky. Soon after the release users began reporting that all of their data files were missing after the update. From Documents, to Downloads, Photos, Music, etc. Basically everything in their users/login folders.
The issue became bad enough that MS formally pulled the 1809 update from Windows Update. Luckily it appears as though via a KB repair provided by MS - you may be able to recover your data - but you need to contact MS support in order for them to supply you the KB patch.
But that is only if you did NOT perform a disk clean-up and removed the previous Windows version content or performed some other data movement...
In those cases your data may be gone for good.
Considering the fact that MS was always conservative with regards to legacy support and user data - this whole episode is kind of incredulous.
But in some ways I could see this coming. With the 3 most recent major Windows releases - MS has experienced some sort of major error that has required an immediate update, halting/delaying deployment or both.
As Mehedi Hassan put it in a recent post - "Microsoft has a software quality issue" - and he is somewhat right. Mehedi puts some of the blame on the Insider process - but I say bullshit. Insiders report a lot of key issues - and MS should apply the proper resources and approach to properly vet and address those issues.
As I have mentioned in many posts and experienced first hand many times, MS's Windows Update approach and execution for Windows 10 has been problematic. And the problem has been getting worse, not better. With this 1809 Update debacle it has peaked.
Sure there are always risks in computing when performing updates and yes you should perform regular backups to protect your data.- but with that said, I also have Apple, Android and ChromeOS devices that also update regularly without any drama at all.
No software company is perfect and the modern approach to constant updates is the norm - so MS should have this down cold. But obviously they didn't - and how this issue got past QA testing is beyond me.
Having supported companies like Intel and what they used to call the "wall of systems" - which contained thousands of devices from all vendors designed for the express purpose of testing software across a broad array of new and legacy devices - this should have never happened.
I know that if I was one of the folks that lost GB or even TB worth of photos, music, documents, etc - I would be livid. And even if you had a backup - then having to recover all that is just a major pain in the ass.
So now it becomes a question of confidence. Are you willing to take the risk to update to 1809 - even after MS patches the build. Would you ever update again or start looking at alternatives like Apple or Google ?
Only time will tell - but after over 30 years in the Windows business what MS allowed to have happen to their customers was both avoidable and inexcusable.
I was lucky in that all 3 machines updated successfully. One took nearly 3 hours - but updated. My luck may have been due to the fact that for each - I logged in using my MS account versus my wife's, daughters and grand-daughters account which had no real data on the device expect for a few downloads.
But many were not so lucky. Soon after the release users began reporting that all of their data files were missing after the update. From Documents, to Downloads, Photos, Music, etc. Basically everything in their users/login folders.
The issue became bad enough that MS formally pulled the 1809 update from Windows Update. Luckily it appears as though via a KB repair provided by MS - you may be able to recover your data - but you need to contact MS support in order for them to supply you the KB patch.
But that is only if you did NOT perform a disk clean-up and removed the previous Windows version content or performed some other data movement...
In those cases your data may be gone for good.
Considering the fact that MS was always conservative with regards to legacy support and user data - this whole episode is kind of incredulous.
But in some ways I could see this coming. With the 3 most recent major Windows releases - MS has experienced some sort of major error that has required an immediate update, halting/delaying deployment or both.
As Mehedi Hassan put it in a recent post - "Microsoft has a software quality issue" - and he is somewhat right. Mehedi puts some of the blame on the Insider process - but I say bullshit. Insiders report a lot of key issues - and MS should apply the proper resources and approach to properly vet and address those issues.
As I have mentioned in many posts and experienced first hand many times, MS's Windows Update approach and execution for Windows 10 has been problematic. And the problem has been getting worse, not better. With this 1809 Update debacle it has peaked.
Sure there are always risks in computing when performing updates and yes you should perform regular backups to protect your data.- but with that said, I also have Apple, Android and ChromeOS devices that also update regularly without any drama at all.
No software company is perfect and the modern approach to constant updates is the norm - so MS should have this down cold. But obviously they didn't - and how this issue got past QA testing is beyond me.
Having supported companies like Intel and what they used to call the "wall of systems" - which contained thousands of devices from all vendors designed for the express purpose of testing software across a broad array of new and legacy devices - this should have never happened.
I know that if I was one of the folks that lost GB or even TB worth of photos, music, documents, etc - I would be livid. And even if you had a backup - then having to recover all that is just a major pain in the ass.
So now it becomes a question of confidence. Are you willing to take the risk to update to 1809 - even after MS patches the build. Would you ever update again or start looking at alternatives like Apple or Google ?
Only time will tell - but after over 30 years in the Windows business what MS allowed to have happen to their customers was both avoidable and inexcusable.
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