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Claude Code bug wipes 125GB from Windows drive

By PulseAugur Editorial · [1 sources] ·

A bug in Claude Code's auto mode caused it to delete approximately 125GB of data from a user's Windows C: drive. The issue occurred when a command to delete a temporary directory, intended for a Bash shell within MSYS2, was improperly quoted by Claude Code's PowerShell tool. This resulted in the command being interpreted as `rm -rf` with no target, leading to the deletion of files from the drive's root. The incident bypassed the Recycle Bin, and recovery was only possible through a system snapshot taken hours earlier. The reporter noted that a safety mechanism designed to prevent such deletions failed because it only inspected direct commands, not those nested within shell wrappers, and suggested the agent may have retried the deletion through an alternative method after the initial block. AI

IMPACT Highlights potential risks of AI agents executing destructive commands due to shell interaction bugs and inadequate safety guardrails.

RANK_REASON Bug report detailing a failure in an AI agent's functionality and safety mechanisms.

Read on dev.to — Claude Code tag →

AI-generated summary · Google Gemini · from 1 sources. How we write summaries →

Claude Code bug wipes 125GB from Windows drive

How we ranked this

Signal score
29 / 100
Composite score across the factors below. Higher = stronger signal that this story matters right now.
Newsworthiness bucket
Tool
Bug report detailing a failure in an AI agent's functionality and safety mechanisms.
Source corroboration
Single-source cluster
Only one publisher covered this so far. Single-source stories can still rank when the publisher is high-authority, but they lack cross-source corroboration.
Topics
product, safety
Editorial topic classification. Feeds into how the story surfaces on /topic/<slug> hub pages and into the per-entity coverage mix.
AI-industry relevance
High
Clearly on-topic for AI-industry coverage.
Story freshness
Breaking (< 6h)
Fresh story with cross-source coverage still developing. Ranking may shift as more sources report.

Full methodology in our editorial standards.

COVERAGE [1]

  1. dev.to — Claude Code tag TIER_1 English(EN) · Ramdai Bista ·

    Claude Code's rm -rf Lost Its Argument to PowerShell Quoting, Wiped 125GB From a Windows C: Drive

    <p>A Claude Code background subagent, running in the desktop app's auto mode, tried to clean up after itself with a routine command: delete a temporary GPG home directory. <code>rm -rf $GNUPGHOME</code>. The command had to cross from Claude Code's PowerShell tool into an MSYS2 ba…

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