Every month, Microsoft releases its Patch Tuesday updates — and every month, a wave of computers restart to install them and never make it back to the desktop. Instead, the screen shows a blue error: INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE.
If that's where your PC is stuck right now, take a breath. Your files are still on the drive, Windows is still installed, and in most cases the fix is removing the update that just went on — something you can do from the recovery screen without reinstalling anything. This guide walks through exactly how, including the command-line method for when the easy button fails.
This page covers the update-specific version of this error. If your blue screen appeared out of nowhere — no recent update, no hardware change — start with our complete guide to fixing an Inaccessible Boot Device error, which covers the full range of causes.
Microsoft released its June 2026 Patch Tuesday updates on June 9: KB5094126 for Windows 11 versions 24H2 and 25H2 (builds 26100.8655 and 26200.8655), and KB5093998 for version 23H2. Beyond the security fixes, this round begins enforcing new Secure Boot certificates — boot-level security plumbing — and fixes a couple of crash bugs from earlier updates.
As of publication, there are no widespread reports of the June updates causing boot failures. But this year has already shown why you want this page bookmarked: Microsoft confirmed that the January 2026 security update (KB5074109) left some Windows 11 PCs unable to boot, and the two emergency follow-up patches it rushed out didn't resolve the boot problem. Update-related boot failures aren't a rare fluke — they're a recurring pattern, and the recovery steps below are the same every time it happens.
A cumulative update doesn't just patch apps — it can replace pieces of the storage driver stack Windows uses to read its own boot drive. If the updated files don't agree with your hardware, your BIOS settings, or a third-party storage driver that's already installed, Windows wakes up after the restart unable to access the very partition it's booting from. That's the whole error in one sentence.
The common versions of this we see on the bench: an update conflicts with a manufacturer or utility-installed NVMe/Intel RST driver that replaced the stock Microsoft one; an interrupted update restart (power loss, forced shutdown mid-"Undoing changes") leaves the boot files half-migrated; or the update simply has a bug, as the January 2026 episode proved. On machines with BitLocker, the failed boot often adds a blue recovery-key screen on top, which makes the whole thing look scarier than it is.
If you see "Undoing changes made to your computer" or repeated restart attempts, do not pull the power. Windows is attempting to roll the update back on its own, and interrupting it can turn a recoverable problem into a corrupted one. Give it a genuine 30–60 minutes. If it's been stuck far longer than that, our guide on the "Undoing changes" update loop covers that specific trap.
After two or three failed boots, Windows should offer the blue recovery environment automatically. If it doesn't, force it: power the machine off the moment the spinning dots appear, three times in a row, and the fourth boot will land in recovery. If even that fails, create a bootable Windows USB on another computer, boot from it, and choose "Repair your computer."
BitLocker note: recovery tools may ask for your BitLocker recovery key. Before going further, pull it up on your phone at aka.ms/myrecoverykey (sign in with the Microsoft account used on the PC). If no key is listed there and you don't have it printed or saved, stop — don't experiment. Wrong moves on a locked BitLocker drive can make data unrecoverable.
This is the fix that matches the cause. From the recovery screen: Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Uninstall Updates → Uninstall latest quality update. Quality updates are the monthly Patch Tuesday packages — this removes the one that just installed. Restart and test. For most update-triggered INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE cases, this is the end of the story.
Sometimes that uninstall option errors out or sits forever. The manual method works when the button doesn't. From recovery, open Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Command Prompt, then list the installed update packages:
dism /image:C:\ /get-packages /format:table(If C: isn't your Windows drive inside recovery, run dir C:\, dir D:\, etc. until you find the one containing a Windows folder, and use that letter.) Look at the install dates in the list, find the package installed on the date everything broke — it'll have a long name starting with "Package_for_RollupFix" — and remove it:
dism /image:C:\ /remove-package /packagename:<full package name from the list>The removal can take a while — let it finish, then restart.
If the system still won't start, boot into Safe Mode once via Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Startup Settings → Restart, then press 4. A successful Safe Mode boot forces Windows to re-register its boot-critical storage drivers, which clears the driver-conflict version of this error. If Safe Mode loads, just restart normally. If the recovery screen itself is unreachable, see our guide to reaching Safe Mode when Windows won't boot.
If a restore point exists from before the update, Troubleshoot → Advanced options → System Restore rolls the system files back wholesale. It won't touch your documents and photos — it only rewinds Windows itself and installed programs.
Here's the step everyone skips, and then the same update reinstalls overnight and re-breaks the machine. Once you're back at the desktop, go to Settings → Windows Update and pause updates — you can extend the pause up to five weeks. That's usually enough time for Microsoft to ship a corrected version. Don't leave updates off permanently; the monthly patches carry real security fixes, and skipping them long-term trades one problem for a worse one.
Windows 10 reached end of support in October 2025, but plenty of machines are still getting monthly patches through the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program — and those updates can misfire exactly the same way. Every fix on this page applies to Windows 10 too; the recovery screens are nearly identical. If your Windows 10 PC isn't enrolled in ESU and isn't getting updates at all, that's a different conversation worth having — an unpatched internet-connected machine is living on borrowed time, and we can walk you through the options, from ESU enrollment to an upgrade path.
One pattern worth knowing: sometimes the update restart is just the first full reboot the machine has done in weeks, and what it reveals is a drive that was already failing. The update gets the blame; the dying disk did the crime. Warning signs that point this direction: chkdsk reporting a flood of errors, the drive intermittently vanishing from the BIOS, clicking or grinding sounds, or the machine having been slow and freezy for weeks before the update.
If any of that sounds familiar, stop running repair commands — every operation stresses a weak drive further. Get the data imaged first. Our data recovery service handles exactly this scenario, including hard drive recovery for mechanical drives on their way out.
Patch Tuesday week is reliably one of our busiest at the bench. If you've tried the steps above and your computer still won't boot — or you hit a BitLocker key request you can't satisfy, or you'd simply rather have a professional handle it — bring the machine in. We'll identify whether the update, a driver conflict, or the drive itself is at fault, remove the problem update cleanly, pull your data to safety if the drive is suspect, and set updates up so this doesn't repeat next month.
Dave's Computers is a drop-off repair shop at 75 North Bridge St in Somerville, NJ (behind Bank of America), serving customers across Somerset, Middlesex, Hunterdon, and Mercer counties. Diagnostics are $75, credited toward your repair. Walk in Monday–Friday 10–5 or Saturday 9–2, or call (908) 428-9558 — during Patch Tuesday week, it's worth calling ahead so we can get your machine on the bench quickly.
No. Removing a quality update only rolls back system files Microsoft changed — your documents, photos, and programs stay exactly where they are. System Restore is equally safe for personal files.
On another device, go to aka.ms/myrecoverykey and sign in with the Microsoft account used on the locked PC — the 48-digit key is usually listed there. Work or school machines store it with the IT department instead. If you can't locate the key anywhere, don't guess or reset the PC; bring it in before anything irreversible happens.
The June 2026 Patch Tuesday packages are KB5094126 for Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2, and KB5093998 for 23H2. If your machine broke immediately after installing one of these, the uninstall steps above target exactly that package. Earlier in 2026, the January update KB5074109 was confirmed by Microsoft to cause boot failures on some Windows 11 PCs.
Pause updates in Settings → Windows Update right after you recover — up to five weeks. Microsoft typically ships a corrected update well within that window, and Windows resumes patching automatically when the pause ends.
No. Monthly updates carry the security fixes that keep ransomware and exploits off your machine, and current updates are also delivering new Secure Boot certificates your PC will need going forward. Pause when an update misbehaves; don't opt out forever.