WSL2 system.vhd - The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable.

[Cptwafflez]

Windows Version

Version 10.0.22631.4169

WSL Version

2.3.24.0

Are you using WSL 1 or WSL 2?

• WSL 2
• WSL 1

Kernel Version

No response

Distro Version

Ubuntu-22.04

Other Software

No response

Repro Steps

Launching WSL via cmd, PowerShell, start menu all produce the same issue. Issue persists even with/without admin and after restarts/chkdsks.

Expected Behavior

WSL typically boots up in seconds, leading to a pleasant and expected experience

Actual Behavior

When attempting to launch from the methods above, I am stopped and given the error below:

Failed to attach disk 'C:\Program Files\WSL\system.vhd' to WSL2: The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable.
Error code: Wsl/Service/CreateInstance/CreateVm/MountVhd/HCS/0x80070570

I have seen another related issue (#7991) but I did not delete any large amounts of data preceding this issue.

Diagnostic Logs

No response

[github-actions]

Logs are required for review from WSL team

If this a feature request, please reply with '/feature'. If this is a question, reply with '/question'.
Otherwise please attach logs by following the instructions below, your issue will not be reviewed unless they are added. These logs will help us understand what is going on in your machine.

How to collect WSL logs

Download and execute collect-wsl-logs.ps1 in an administrative powershell prompt:

Invoke-WebRequest -UseBasicParsing "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/WSL/master/diagnostics/collect-wsl-logs.ps1" -OutFile collect-wsl-logs.ps1
Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force
.\collect-wsl-logs.ps1

The script will output the path of the log file once done.

If this is a networking issue, please use collect-networking-logs.ps1, following the instructions here

Once completed please upload the output files to this Github issue.

Click here for more info on logging
If you choose to email these logs instead of attaching to the bug, please send them to [email protected] with the number of the github issue in the subject, and in the message a link to your comment in the github issue and reply with '/emailed-logs'.

View similar issues

Please view the issues below to see if they solve your problem, and if the issue describes your problem please consider closing this one and thumbs upping the other issue to help us prioritize it!

Open similar issues:

• The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable (#7991), similarity score: 0.81

Closed similar issues:

• WSL2: The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable (#12067), similarity score: 0.84
• Corrupted WSL2 after large files delete (#11179), similarity score: 0.83
• WSL missing system.vhd (#11162), similarity score: 0.81
• WSL_E_DISK_CORRUPTED (#10996), similarity score: 0.81

Note: You can give me feedback by thumbs upping or thumbs downing this comment.

[tharos47]

Hello, I had the same issue after updating wsl with wsl --update

Here is the fix that worked #11069 (comment)

(you just need to extract the files from the msi of wsl 2.3.24.0)

[Cptwafflez]

Hello, I had the same issue after updating wsl with wsl --update

Here is the fix that worked #11069 (comment)

(you just need to extract the files from the msi of wsl 2.3.24.0)

Hey there @tharos47 - appreciate the help, this solution worked!