Cannot start WSL: Wsl/Service/CreateInstance/CreateVm/HCS/ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND #40488

No logs.etl found in the archive. Make sure that you ran collect-wsl-logs.ps1 as administrator and that the logs.etl file is in the archive.

.wslconfig found
Detected appx version: 2.7.3.0
No logs.etl found in archive.
Error while parsing the logs. See action page for details

I found rolling back (reinstalling) 2.6.3 resolved this for me. https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/releases/tag/2.6.3

Hi Hai-Ren Could you please check if the file C:\Program Files\WSL\system.vhd and C:\Program Files\WSL\tools\modules.vhd exist on your system? If so, could you please provide their file hash with these commands?

Get-FileHash -Algorithm SHA256 "C:\Program Files\WSL\system.vhd"
Get-FileHash -Algorithm SHA256 "C:\Program Files\WSL\tools\modules.vhd"

And share the file's acl with these commands:

Get-Acl "C:\Program Files\WSL\system.vhd" | Format-List
Get-Acl "C:\Program Files\WSL\tools\modules.vhd" | Format-List

Hi Feng Wang (@chemwolf6922),

Thank you for your response!

I just checked my system. While the directory C:\Program Files\WSL\tools does exist, both system.vhd and modules.vhd are completely missing from the WSL folder.

To manually restore the missing files, I downloaded the latest offline installer (wsl.2.7.3.0.x64.msi) from the GitHub releases page and attempted to run it.

However, the installation failed silently. A dialog box popped up saying "Please wait while Windows configures Windows Subsystem for Linux", but before the progress bar could finish, the window just closed automatically without any error message.

I checked the directories again, and both system.vhd and modules.vhd are still missing.

Hi Hai-Ren , you may try these steps to restore wsl (won't loss distro data)

1. Disable WSL in Windows features.
2. Reboot.
3. Enable WSL in Windows features.
4. Reboot.
5. Reinstall WSL from the msi.

I found rolling back (reinstalling) 2.6.3 resolved this for me. https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/releases/tag/2.6.3

Huge thanks to Nick Botica (@nickbotica)! Rolling back to 2.6.3 worked perfectly for me too.

Feng Wang (@chemwolf6922), just to confirm, my issue is now resolved. The 2.6.3 installer successfully deployed the missing .vhd files, whereas the 2.7.3 installer was failing silently. Thank you both for the help!

Feng Wang (@chemwolf6922) I tried your options, but that didn't work.
I also rolled back to 2.6.3 and everything now works again.

Rollback to 2.6.3. fixed it for me as well.
To rollback, I downloaded and installed the .msi from https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/releases/tag/2.6.3

Had an issue today myself. Same problem. wsl was working. Laptop reported low power issues and then Windows hibernated. wsl broken after. Rollback to 2.6.3 worked (https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/releases/tag/2.6.3)

Hi, for anyone hitting this problem. Could you please try collect and share the installer log via these steps? Thanks.

• Download this script: https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/blob/master/diagnostics/collect-wsl-logs.ps1
• Run the script in admin PowerShell. Wait until the Log collection is running line shows up.
• Run the 2.7.3 installer.
• End the log collection by hitting any key in the PowerShell window.
• Share the generated .tar.gz / .zip file here.

Same. Rolling back to 2.6.3 fixed it. Files are intact after rollback.

msi repair works indeed. perfect.

Yes, what a nightmare. Repair didn't work for me, I had to remove and re-add WSL from Windows features. I backed up my Ubuntu vhd first, just in case. I didn't need to do this, and there was no data loss.

Repair didn't work for me but install just worked. Regardless, thank you!

For those who say .msi right click + repair didn't work, a possible reason is version incompatibility.

Confirm your WSL version in PowerShell: wsl --version

On the releases page scroll to the appropriate version. You are not likely to be running a pre-release version of WSL which is listed first, and the issue may be caused by an automatic update so you may actually be running a more current version than you last recall.

https://github.com/microsoft/wsl/releases

I won't make any assumptions in this era of vibe coders who may be new to things: make sure you download the appropriate x64 vs. arm64 version of the .msi depending on your CPU... Go with x64 for Intel/AMD or arm64 for Apple Silicon or Qualcomm (Copilot+ PC).

Thanks everyone, repair worked for me. Funnily enough, I never hit surprise WSL issues on my linux workstations :P

For me nor reinstalling WSL didn't worked, nor DISM. But, manual copy of system.vhd and modules.vhd did.
Ref: https://linuxbeast.com/blog/how-to-fix-wsl-createvm-hcs-error-file-not-found-on-windows/

I just had the same issue with WSL 2.7.14.0
Following: https://linuxbeast.com/blog/how-to-fix-wsl-createvm-hcs-error-file-not-found-on-windows/ thankfully resolved it.

I just had the same issue with WSL 2.7.14.0 Following: https://linuxbeast.com/blog/how-to-fix-wsl-createvm-hcs-error-file-not-found-on-windows/ thankfully resolved it.

Same here for 2.7.14.0.
The guide worked but the winget command didn't work for me, I had to download the MSI from github manually.

I just had the same issue with WSL 2.7.14.0 Following: https://linuxbeast.com/blog/how-to-fix-wsl-createvm-hcs-error-file-not-found-on-windows/ thankfully resolved it.

Same here for 2.7.14.0. The guide worked but the winget command didn't work for me, I had to download the MSI from github manually.

There is a dedicated command in winget for downloading winget download --id Microsoft.WSL

I just had the same issue with WSL 2.7.14.0 Following: https://linuxbeast.com/blog/how-to-fix-wsl-createvm-hcs-error-file-not-found-on-windows/ thankfully resolved it.

Same here for 2.7.14.0. The guide worked but the winget command didn't work for me, I had to download the MSI from github manually.

There is a dedicated command in winget for downloading winget download --id Microsoft.WSL

Yes, I know, didn't work either. Probably a issue specific to my machine. Just wanted to mention what worked for me.

I just had the same issue with WSL 2.7.14.0 Following: https://linuxbeast.com/blog/how-to-fix-wsl-createvm-hcs-error-file-not-found-on-windows/ thankfully resolved it.

Same here for 2.7.14.0. The guide worked but the winget command didn't work for me, I had to download the MSI from github manually.

There is a dedicated command in winget for downloading winget download --id Microsoft.WSL

Yes, I know, didn't work either. Probably a issue specific to my machine. Just wanted to mention what worked for me.

I also had to download it manually (forgot to mention that earlier). Using winget download --id Microsoft.WSL only provided the previous version 2.7.13.0. I guess because the newer one is so new that winget was/is not yet aware of it.

I had the same issue today, with version 2.7.14.0; downloading the latest MSI and launching Right click > "Restore" fixed the issue for me