Microsoft Confirms Windows 11's January Update Is Bricking Some PCs

Microsoft's Windows 11 January 2026 Update woes continue, and now the company is confirming that some users are no longer able to boot their PCs, receiving the BSOD stop code "UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME" instead. The issue is limited to physical devices, and doesn't seem to impact virtual machines at all. But since this is the same update that somehow also broke Sleep functionality, the standard Shutdown menu, and Outlook Classic, it's not a good look for Microsoft, especially since this was mostly meant to be a routine security update. Perhaps this is a sign that "as much as 30%" of Microsoft's code shouldn't be written by AI, as its CEO Satya Nadella once disclosed? It's hard to say.

In any case, users impacted by this issue are advised by Microsoft to resort to standard manual recovery steps, including WinRE or, in a serious situation, resorting to ...