WSL 2 Ubuntu Files Gone after changing my window username

[realryankim]

Windows Build Number

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19041.985]

WSL Version

• WSL 2
• WSL 1

Kernel Version

No response

Distro Version

Ubuntu 18.04

Other Software

No response

Repro Steps

1. I was about to install Flutter on WSL2, but it won't work, so I tried install it on window10
2. While installing Android Studio, I found out that my window username has a space such as 'SUPER MAN', 'Bat Man'
3. Android Studio installer showed warning message that my username folder has a space, so there would be bugs or errors in the future, something like that.
4. So, I was worried and I tried to find ways to change my username name and I followed the steps. Link, This is not what I used but it's in English so I attached it
5. I checked everything and I confirmed that my username and username folder are changed, but WSL2 terminal doesn't work and I realized that window capacity increased. OH NO... PLEASE NO... It's totally gone, all my data are gone
6. I tried to restore it using window restore system. It restored as it was 4 days ago, but WSL2... never come back.

Expected Behavior

I was expecting to see, my WSL data is still there. I didn't expect that all the data is deleted because I changed my window username and folder name.

Actual Behavior

It's gone! all gone! All data are deleted. I can't restore it. I hoped that there would be a way to change path connecting with WSL. How is it possible to be deleted all without alert?

Diagnostic Logs

No response

[Nennori]

Same situation, bro

[NotTheDr01ds]

@Nennori While it's almost certainly too late for the OP to still be worried about this, there's a chance you can still recover. Simply renaming the folder shouldn't remove the files. However, doing a Windows Restore (which the OP did) could easily delete them.

As noted in one of the answers on that Super User question:

many things ... will be broken until you properly migrate all your registry keys and values.

The location of every WSL distribution is stored in registry keys, so if your user profile folder name changed, those will now be wrong.

Try going to PowerShell and run:

Get-ChildItem HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Lxss\ |
     ForEach-Object {
         (Get-ItemProperty $_.PSPATH) | Select-Object DistributionName,BasePath
     }

This will list the location(s) where WSL thinks the distribution(s) are.

Let's say you see:

Ubuntu-22.04         C:\Users\old username\AppData\Local\Packages\CanonicalGroupLimited.Ubuntu22.04LTS_79rhkp1fndgsc\LocalState

If you go to the equivalent folder in the newly renamed profile ... E.g.:

C:\Users\newusernamewithoutaspace\AppData\Local\Packages\CanonicalGroupLimited.Ubuntu22.04LTS_79rhkp1fndgsc\LocalState

Do you find the files there?

Of course, you'll need to use the output from the command above to find the correct folder - My example above is only valid for my install.

[Nennori]

@NotTheDr01ds, thank you for your answer. When changing the folder name, I followed this tutorial: https://www.repairwin.com/how-to-rename-user-and-user-folder-in-windows-7-8-10/, and used Registry Finder from this tutorial to update references to the old folder. It seems that not all went well during registry updating. I didn't really restore the system, but I reinstalled Ubuntu to get access to bash.
So, when I use the command you typed above I get references to a newly installed Ubuntu's:
Ubuntu-18.04 C:\Users\newusername\AppData\Local\Packages\CanonicalGroupLimited.Ubuntu18.04LTS_79rhkp1fndgsc\Loc...
Ubuntu-20.04 C:\Users\newusername\AppData\Local\Packages\CanonicalGroupLimited.Ubuntu20.04LTS_79rhkp1fndgsc\Loc...

But in the Packages folder I can find my old Ubuntu-18.04 system in a folder named:
C:\Users\newusername\AppData\Local\Packages\CanonicalGroupLimited.Ubuntu18.04onWindows_79rhkp1fndgsc
Are there any ways to make it active again?

[NotTheDr01ds]

Are there any ways to make it active again?

@Nennori

Most likely, yes. As long as the files are still there, you're in reasonably good shape.

First, do not under any circumstance reinstall Ubuntu 18.04 from the Store. Doing that would almost certainly overwrite the old files.

Next, was the 18.04 distribution WSL1 or WSL2? If you find ..\LocalState\ext4.vhdx in that folder, then it's WSL2. If you find ..\LocalState\rootfs\ (a directory), it's WSL1.

WSL1 may be trickier. At the worst case, you can at least copy any individual, critical files you need out of a WSL1 directory. Permissions and ownership will be lost, but the content/data should be intact.

Either way, if you have the space available, I'd probably make a copy of that folder to a safe location to start with.

• Option 1: Ubuntu 18.04 was a WSL2 distribution (ext4.vhdx) and you are running Windows 11

  This is the simplest, most robust (I believe) solution. If you are on Windows 11, I would recommend installing the "Windows Subsystem for Linux Preview" from the Microsoft Store (link) if you haven't done so already.

  Then from PowerShell (do this as your regular user; not an Admin session):

  wsl ~ -d Ubuntu-18.04 <path_to_ext4.vhdx>
  

  That's going to recreate the 18.04 distribution with the name that Ubuntu expects in the same location it should be in if it were newly installed (with the new username). The new --import-in-place option means that the files don't even have to get moved or copied.

• Option 2: Ubuntu 18.04 was a WSL2 distribution (ext4.vhdx) and you are running Windows 10 (or GA WSL on Windows 11)

  In this case, I would first try:

  • Move the ext4.vhdx file to a backup directory
  • Reinstall Ubuntu 18.04 from the Microsoft Store. I think this is going to work, since the registry keys for the old install seem to be missing, but let me know if you get any errors on this step.
  • Create the same username when installing that you were using in the old version.
  • After installing Ubuntu 18.04, Exit WSL
  • wsl --shutdown
  • Copy the ext4.vhdx that you backed up over the newly created one
  • Restart Ubuntu 18.04 (from either the Start menu or wsl ~ -d Ubuntu-18.04) and it should be back to normal.

  If there are any problems with that method, let me know. The other alternative is to create a new distribution in another directory (named something like Ubuntu_18.04_WSL2) and copy the old VHDX over the new one in that directory.

• Option 3: Ubuntu 18.04 is a WSL1 distribution

  Let me know if this is the case. I'm going to wait to test and write up any recovery options for this scenario since I'm hoping the distribution was WSL2.

[Nennori]

@NotTheDr01ds, unfortunately, I've already reinstalled Ubuntu18.04 and it was saved in folder besides old Ubuntu18.04 directory
new Ubuntu18.04 distribution folder: CanonicalGroupLimited.Ubuntu18.04LTS_79rhkp1fndgsc,
old Ubuntu18.04 distribution folder: CanonicalGroupLimited.Ubuntu18.04onWindows_79rhkp1fndgsc
In the old Ubuntu18.04 I can find both rootfs and ext4.vhdx, I suppose it's because it had been originally wsl 1, but later was updated to wsl 2.
So, I use Windows 10 and WSL 2
I tried option 2 you provided: copied old ext4.vhdx into LocalState folder of newly installed Ubuntu18.04 (in stopped state), but I get the error of such content (translated into English):
"Not enough space in CanonicalGroupLimited.Ubuntu18.04LTS_79rhkp1fndgsc. To copy these files, you need 7.16 gigabytes.
Old ext4.vhdx takes up more space than new one, so I can't just copy it...

[NotTheDr01ds]

@Nennori Any external storage (USB flash drive, etc.?) you can move it to for backup? You can try the PowerShell Optimize-VHD cmdlet to see if there's any extra space to recover from it, but I'd always recommend a backup before doing something like that. See here for information.

[asrorbek-mannonov]

After renaming the user folder. I also encountered exactly the same problem. I made it work by doing the following:

1. Open Win + R and launch Registry Editor (type regedit and press Enter)
2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Lxss
3. In the Lxss directory you may find one or more directories based on how many WSL distributives you have installed.
4. In the folders you can find a String Value with the name of BasePath, set its value to renamed user folder.
5. Try to restart the WSL distro. It should work.

[birdkiwi]

I have similar problem, not after changing username, but after reboot (!).

Не удалось подключить диск "C:\Program Files\WSL\system.vhd" к WSL2: The system cannot find the file specified.
Error code: Wsl/Service/CreateInstance/CreateVm/MountVhd/HCS/ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND
Press any key to continue...

I've checked this system.vhd file and it's gone, nothing. Happened to me second time.

[ICHx]

I got this problem of missing system.vhd after reboot from a windows 11 update