New Home windows 11 bug breaks Samsung PCs, blocking entry to C: drive

Home windows 11 updates have been inflicting every kind of blood-pressure-raising points over the past a number of months. That development continues with the most recent February replace, with Samsung PCs now experiencing severe points after putting in replace KB5077181.

Confirmed by Microsoft as a recognized subject in Home windows 11, the Samsung Galaxy Join app is inflicting “lack of entry to the C: drive and app failures” on Samsung PCs working Home windows 11 25H2 or 24H2. With out entry to the C: drive, PCs are successfully inoperable.

Microsoft has reportedly acquired experiences (reminiscent of this one and this one) stating that sure Samsung units lose entry to the C: drive after putting in Microsoft’s February replace in addition to some subsequent updates. Affected customers see error message “C: is just not accessible — Entry denied.” Entry to information is blocked and the launch of sure purposes is blocked, together with Outlook, Workplace purposes, internet browsers, system utilities, and Fast Help.

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Which Samsung units are affected?

Initially, Microsoft’s February patches had been suspected. Nonetheless, an extra investigation by Microsoft and Samsung revealed that the Samsung Galaxy Join app is inflicting the issue.

Microsoft writes:

Whereas the experiences coincided with current March Patch Tuesday timing, investigation confirmed the difficulty is just not attributable to present or earlier Home windows month-to-month updates. The problem has been noticed on Samsung Galaxy Guide 4 and Samsung Desktop fashions working Home windows 11, variations 24H2 and 25H2, together with NP750XGJ, NP750XGL, NP754XGJ, NP754XFG, NP754XGK, DM500SGA, DM500TDA, DM500TGA, and DM501SGA.

Relating to how customers expertise the issue:

Affected units encounter the difficulty when customers execute frequent actions, reminiscent of accessing information, launching purposes, or performing administrative duties, and don’t require any particular consumer motion past routine operations. In some instances, customers are additionally unable to raise privileges, uninstall updates, or accumulate logs as a consequence of permission failures.

There’s no repair at the moment

Microsoft has briefly eliminated the affected Samsung Galaxy Join app from the Microsoft Retailer to stop additional installations. Samsung has since re-released a earlier steady model of the app, which ought to imply that no additional issues ought to happen when putting in the Samsung Galaxy Join app (for first-time customers).

Nonetheless, for many who have already put in the damaged model of the Samsung Galaxy Join app and are experiencing the issues described above, bother continues.

In line with Microsoft, choices for restoring affected units stay restricted. Samsung is constant to work with Microsoft to discover attainable cures, and Microsoft is collaborating with Samsung to develop and validate options for affected units.

Home windows PCs from non-Samsung producers are unaffected.