WSL after upgraded to version: 2.5.9.0, got issue of "Failed to attach disk 'C:\Program Files\WSL\system.vhd"

[huifeng-zhou-veriforce]

Windows Version

10.0.26100.4061

WSL Version

2.5.9.0

Are you using WSL 1 or WSL 2?

• [x] WSL 2
• [ ] WSL 1

Kernel Version

6.6.87.2-1

Distro Version

Ubuntu version 2404.1.68.0

Other Software

docker --version Docker version 26.1.4, build 5650f9b

Repro Steps

Try to run WSL or click Ubuntu icon to start it

Expected Behavior

WSL works

Actual Behavior

Failed to attach disk 'C:\Program Files\WSL\system.vhd' to WSL2: The system cannot find the file specified. Error code: Wsl/Service/CreateInstance/CreateVm/MountDisk/HCS/ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND

Diagnostic Logs

No response

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[swoodvitsoe]

Same here. Automatic upgrade of WSL2 took place without my consent. Tried to reinstall ubuntu and it deleted my entire distro, including the user disk. I am furious.

[sskhan39]

Same issue. Rocky linux.

[xinyert]

Same here - happened about 2 hours ago. Now, I cannot get wsl to work or install. I've tried unregister and then reinstall, but this is what I get:

PS C:\Users\nixt> wsl --install --distribution Ubuntu-24.04 Downloading: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Installing: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Failed to attach disk 'C:\Program Files\WSL\system.vhd' to WSL2: The system cannot find the file specified. Error code: Wsl/InstallDistro/Service/RegisterDistro/CreateVm/MountDisk/HCS/ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND PS C:\Users\nixt>

[huifeng-zhou-veriforce]

I searched a bit and found the way to solve it was downgrade the wsl version. I don't know how to downgrade. And then I uninstalled Ubuntu from window; uninstalled wsl by run this command in PowerShell: wsl --uninstall

After that I re-installed them by running: wsl --install -d Ubuntu-22.04

Now everything works well.

The bad thing is that I need to reset everything for the project, like the SSH keys, credentials, API key, GitHub keys...

[sskhan39]

My issue was my VM folder (one containing .vhdx file) somehow got moved to One Drive- no idea how that happened. But simply cut/pasting it to desired path solved the problem completely for me.

@Shelly-Alcumus I'd like to request to keep this issue open for a while.

[huifeng-zhou-veriforce]

@sskhan39 Thanks for your solution and it is useful for future reference! No problem to keep this open for a while.

[camerondm9]

I've encountered this issue twice now. Seems to be a known issue: #11069

I've been able to fix it both times by downloading the .msi installer from the Releases page on this repo, using 7-Zip to extract the .vhd file, and then copying it into the expected location manually.

[RyutaSato]

There is a way to install version 2.5.9 by temporarily downgrading WSL: https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/13133#issuecomment-2982687910

You don’t need to run wsl --unregister or uninstall WSL itself—just click the installer. With this method, you can avoid the issue without losing any data.

[thomasgeens]

The upgrade on my device resulted in 2 VHD files which went missing from disk. The following steps were executed to resolve the issue:

1. Downloaded current release installer wsl.2.5.9.0.x64.msi from https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/releases/

2. Unsuccessfully tried installing the MSI on top of my current installation and therefor decided to manually copy the following files in the correct places:

wsl.2.5.9.0.x64.msi\cab2.cab\system.vhd to C:\Program Files\WSL\system.vhd wsl.2.5.9.0.x64.msi\cab4.cab\modules.vhd to C:\Program Files\WSL\tools\modules.vhd

[EidoJ]

Thanks @thomasgeens , that worked!

For anyone else following along at home, to extract the files from the .msi, open a PowerShell window in your downloads folder and run something like msiexec /a wsl.2.5.9.0.x64.msi /qb TARGETDIR="C:\Users\<user>\Downloads\extracted", then copy the two files mentioned above.

[suikast42]

Can confirm . 2.5.8 > 2.5.9 update breaks. Rollback works

[craigjones-dev]

After getting the same issue, I installed the 2.6.0.0 msi and it resolves the issue. https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/releases/download/2.6.0/wsl.2.6.0.0.x64.msi

[ShinobiWPS]

The upgrade on my device resulted in 2 VHD files which went missing from disk. The following steps were executed to resolve the issue:

1. Downloaded current release installer wsl.2.5.9.0.x64.msi from microsoft/WSL/releases
2. Unsuccessfully tried installing the MSI on top of my current installation and therefor decided to manually copy the following files in the correct places:

wsl.2.5.9.0.x64.msi\cab2.cab\system.vhd to C:\Program Files\WSL\system.vhd wsl.2.5.9.0.x64.msi\cab4.cab\modules.vhd to C:\Program Files\WSL\tools\modules.vhd

valid fix!