Windows 10 Anniversary update kills Linux partitions

Posted 04 August 2016 18:50 CET by Jan Willem Aldershoff

Users complain they miss Linux partitions after installing the Windows 10 Anniversary update. On both social media and Linux related forums users post that the Windows 10 update removed partitions from their system without asking.

Mainly dual-boot users, who have both a Windows and Linux partition on their system, appear to be affected. However there are also some reports of users who store their data on a separate that saw their partition deleted. It’s unclear how widespread the issue is, but for affected users it’s a scary thing to see their partitions were gone.

Fortunately there is a fix and actual data doesn’t seem to be lost. Using a partition manager it’s possible to recover the partition and no data should be lost.

This issue doesn’t seem to be the only one, users also complain about issues with Microsoft’s Virtual Machine software Hyper V. Other users report the installation stopped somewhere in the middle and they were unable to use any Windows recovery tools. They had to resort to reinstalling Windows completely.

Related content

Xercus
Moderator
Posted on: 04 Aug 16 17:27
To be frank, I think Microsoft has become victim of development by the kitchen sink, too few programmers with a holistic view, too many with an eye only for their own part and a non-working developing management.

Harsh words I know, but with the many flaws noted in this latest incarnation of the Windows OS, installation and all, it will see patches until December.
First of all, how hard is it to save the user's preferences? Not at all, still they fail in doing that even for Windows update. Lame first, not respecting user's choice next.
How hard is it to detect a dual boot? Not at all, there really is nothing to it! Lame first, Lame next and so on ad infinity.

All this leads to more competent users in time, time Microsoft does not have. Today, Apple's development seems way more professional than Microsoft's amateurish attempts at coding something decent...
3 Agree
slayerking
CD Freaks Fartman
Posted on: 05 Aug 16 00:54
Weird my linux partitions are fine
0 Agree
alan1476
Administrator, Software Editor and Head of Promotions
Posted on: 05 Aug 16 01:31
Quote:
Originally Posted by slayerking
Weird my linux partitions are fine
Hi slayerking, nice to see you back here.
1 Agree
slayerking
CD Freaks Fartman
Posted on: 05 Aug 16 02:01
Quote:
Hi slayerking, nice to see you back here.
Thanks Alan
0 Agree
Xercus
Moderator
Posted on: 05 Aug 16 08:27
Quote:
Originally Posted by slayerking
Weird my linux partitions are fine
Naturally they are if you only have Linux

On a serious note, one interesting question in this respect, how do you dual boot (tool/partition layout)?
1 Agree
slayerking
CD Freaks Fartman
Posted on: 05 Aug 16 14:03
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xercus
Naturally they are if you only have Linux

On a serious note, one interesting question in this respect, how do you dual boot (tool/partition layout)?
Dual boot fedora/w10 It probably has something to do with the file system used, I use ext4 (still) mount the winblows efi partition and just go simple swap, /, /home. Used to do a few more like usr/local but just cant be bothered anymore.
0 Agree
Xercus
Moderator
Posted on: 05 Aug 16 15:30
Quote:
Originally Posted by slayerking
Dual boot fedora/w10 It probably has something to do with the file system used, I use ext4 (still) mount the winblows efi partition and just go simple swap, /, /home. Used to do a few more like usr/local but just cant be bothered anymore.
Thank you very much slayerking, great info
0 Agree
TSJnachos117
MyCE Resident
Posted on: 07 Aug 16 08:03
I do wonder which GNU/Linux filesystems are being wiped. Some users are using EXT4, others are using BTRFS, and other are using UFS, etc. Perhaps Windows only wipes BTRFS or something.

Anyway, this proves that Microsoft is either incompetent or malicious (probably both). After all, the only thing Microsoft has to do to save one's GNU/Linux partitions is nothing. Literally, they don't have to do anything. If they leave the partition alone, nothing bad will happen. The fact that they are zapping GNU/Linux partitions away shows that something is really wrong with their development strategy.

That, or the devs feel they aren't getting paid enough, and this is their way of taking revenge.
1 Agree
Liggy
Senior Administrator
Posted on: 10 Aug 16 11:26
On my test PC I have 4 drives with several partitions and lots of different OS systems and versions.

Regarding Linux I have 1 boot partition that is connected to one Linux installation, while the other Linux installations have their boot directory included in the root partition as only the extra partition is used for booting via grub. As a side note I'm only using ext4 for Linux.

Recently I noticed that my boot partition was missing from my partition table and I think I noticed it after I was upgrading one of my Windows Insider installations to build 14393. Fortunately I could simply recreate the partition that appeared as free space with gparted and everything was still there.

Strange thing is that when I updated my two regular Windows 10 installations on that machine (32 and 64 bit) to the latest release, nothing happened to this boot partition. Also none of the other partitions was affected, regardless whether it is used for FreeDOS, Windows (98, 2000, 2*XP, 2*7, 2*8.1 or 2*10), Linux (6 installations), BSD, OS X, VMWare ESXi or my two data partitions.
0 Agree
slayerking
CD Freaks Fartman
Posted on: 19 Aug 16 11:53
I spoke too soon. Rebooted the other day and it has totally wiped grub from the system.
0 Agree
Albert
Senior Moderator
Posted on: 19 Aug 16 17:14
Quote:
Originally Posted by slayerking
I spoke too soon. Rebooted the other day and it has totally wiped grub from the system.
Do you know if it'll do that every time a major update happens?
0 Agree
slayerking
CD Freaks Fartman
Posted on: 20 Aug 16 01:25
Quote:
Originally Posted by Albert
Do you know if it'll do that every time a major update happens?
When they do the full updates like the anniversary yes it should do that (well it shouldn't but M$ can't help themselves). But I reinstalled grub after the update and it was fine, But after a reboot not long ago grub was totally gone, checked in the efi partition and no sign of grub checked with easyuefi and same thing it was gone. W10 is pissing me off more and more every day.
0 Agree

Reactions closed

Sorry, you can't comment on this item anymore. It's either too old or comments are disabled for this post.