WSL2: VHD file vanished after Windows 11 restart

[don4get]

Windows 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

5.15.153.1-2

Distro Version

ubuntu 24.04

Other Software

Docker desktop is installed as well with WSL support.

Repro Steps

Start WSL in cmd: wsl

Expected Behavior

My default Ubuntu distribution should start.

Actual Behavior

Failed to attach disk 'C:\Program Files\WSL\system.vhd' to WSL2
Error code: Wsl/Service/CreateInstance/CreateVm/MountVhd/HCS/ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND

It happened after a Windows restart 1 hour ago. I don't see any updates from Windows Update in the log for today.

Could someone tell if I can recover my VMs from this event, or even how to freshly restart a new Ubuntu VM? For now, even if I try wsl install <distroName>, I get the same error vhd file not found.

Diagnostic Logs

No response

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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!

Closed similar issues:

• WSL missing system.vhd (#11162), similarity score: 0.83
• wsl startup failed after windows update Error code: Wsl/Service/CreateInstance/CreateVm/MountVhd/HCS/ERROR_NOT_FOUND (#11253), similarity score: 0.80
• WSL_E_DISK_CORRUPTED (#10996), similarity score: 0.77
• Cannot access WSL after reboot (#10464), similarity score: 0.77
• WSL2 is failing to attach the wsl virtual disk and giving error code 4294967295 (#10390), similarity score: 0.76

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[don4get]

For now I got a VHD file copy from a colleague, and it works again.