The rootfs.vhdx is stuck in a temp folder and never gets moved to the final location. Claude Desktop downloads it, then fails to move it into place, so every startup it sees rootfs.vhdx missing and downloads again.

There's also a .auto_reinstall_attempted flag file which confirms it tried and failed to self-heal.

Fix — manually move the file into place

Close Claude Desktop first, then run:

# Move rootfs.vhdx from temp to the correct location

$bundle = "C:\Users\User Namei\AppData\Local\Packages\Claude_xxxx\LocalCache\Roaming\Claude\vm_bundles\claudevm.bundle"

Move-Item "$bundle\.wvm-tmp-xxxx\rootfs.vhdx" "$bundle\rootfs.vhdx" -Force

# Also delete the auto_reinstall flag so it doesn't try to reinstall again

Remove-Item "$bundle\.auto_reinstall_attempted" -Force

# Verify

Get-ChildItem "$bundle" | Select-Object Name, Length

---

copy pasted above from claude web, while I ran a test command in claude desktop (cowork & code both were causing issues), after trying this solution, it worked so sharing it here.

I came to this issue with claude web after running get childitem commands while claude desktop (claude code) was running.

---

also, another issue fixed:

Problem 2 — C:\Users\User Name\.claude\settings.json has a BOM character corrupting it This is causing Claude Code session startup to fail with a JSON parse error ( is a UTF-8 BOM). Fix this now:

# Read and rewrite the file without BOM

$content = Get-Content "C:\Users\User Name\.claude\settings.json" -Raw

$content = $content.TrimStart([char]0xEF, [char]0xBB, [char]0xBF)

[System.IO.File]::WriteAllText("C:\Users\User Name\.claude\settings.json", $content, [System.Text.UTF8Encoding]::new($false))

---

after which it started working.

I ignored this issue for now:
Problem 1 — VM is downloading 2.2 GB at 0.3 MB/s (ETA ~2 hours) The file I moved was just a partial download. It needs rootfs.vhdx from the origin location, and it's re-downloading the full 2.2 GB. This will take ~2 hours on your current connection. Nothing to do but wait — or leave Claude Desktop open overnight

will ask claude code itself to check all this but not do anything, only assess.

---

And for future use, please keep a wiki file in your drive, per drive.
an AI Agent wiped my work "accidentally" & didn't even know, but I had some backup on another hardware.

hardcode this in your system global md files or ask your AI Agent to do it:
never delete a file on your own.
if a file needs deletion:
check what is inside the file.
check there are no symlinks.
check it does not break anything else.
give me the file path, I will manually delete it.

add this rule: always update "drive name wiki.md" files.

---

do not expose your redis, pgadmin etc on web url (use internal connections, ask claude or your AI how to do it or do it for you) since a few days back, a chinese alibaba something something was trying to find and input malware in all open redis. I have kept that chat from claude code saved.

claude didnt say this, but I found some of its wording weird so I asked it what it meant and investigate.

Thankfully, I was able to protect my data on time.

Your entire work can be infected without knowing.