[Windows Server 2025] image will no longer have D:/ drive accessible to users from 2025-07-14

[vidyasagarnimmagaddi]

Breaking changes

We are writing to inform you that as of 2025-07-14 all GitHub-hosted runners in public repositories using the Windows Server 2025 image will no longer have a D:/ drive accessible to users.

This change is due to performance reasons. In order to make our runners more performant, the way we manage the disks on our runners is changing. In addition this change will improve startup times for our runners.

Target date

Image deployment will start on 2025-07-07 and will take 2-3 days

The motivation for the changes

• Currently these hosted runners have both a C:/ and a D:/ drive. After the change only the C:/ drive will be accessible to Actions users. Users that are currently accessing the D:/ drive during their workflow runs may experience breakages.

• This change is due to performance reasons. In order to make our runners more performant, the way we manage the disks on our runners is changing. In addition this change will improve startup times for our runners.

Possible impact

Users that are currently accessing the D:/ drive during their workflow runs may experience breakages.

Platforms affected

• Azure DevOps
• GitHub Actions

Runner images affected

• Ubuntu 22.04
• Ubuntu 24.04
• macOS 13
• macOS 13 Arm64
• macOS 14
• macOS 14 Arm64
• macOS 15
• macOS 15 Arm64
• Windows Server 2019
• Windows Server 2022
• Windows Server 2025

Mitigation ways

n/a

[Frulfump]

Can we expect a similar change to Azure DevOps in the future?
The notice in the latest release notes https://github.com/actions/runner-images/releases/tag/win25/20250617.1 is malformed

[lmb]

Is the C: drive going to be faster than it is now? I rely on D: because C: is too slow.

[signal-coder]

Breaking changes

We are writing to inform you that as of 2025-07-14 all GitHub-hosted runners in public repositories using the Windows Server 2025 image will no longer have a D:/ drive accessible to users.

This change is due to performance reasons. In order to make our runners more performant, the way we manage the disks on our runners is changing. In addition this change will improve startup times for our runners.

Target date

Image deployment will start on 2025-07-07 and will take 2-3 days

The motivation for the changes

* Currently these hosted runners have both a `C:/` and a `D:/ drive`. After the change only the `C:/ drive` will be accessible to Actions users. Users that are currently accessing the `D:/ drive` during their workflow runs may experience breakages.

* This change is due to performance reasons. In order to make our runners more performant, the way we manage the disks on our runners is changing. In addition this change will improve startup times for our runners.

Possible impact

Users that are currently accessing the D:/ drive during their workflow runs may experience breakages.

Platforms affected

* [ ]  Azure DevOps[x]  GitHub Actions

Runner images affected

* [ ]  Ubuntu 22.04[ ]  Ubuntu 24.04[ ]  macOS 13[ ]  macOS 13 Arm64[ ]  macOS 14[ ]  macOS 14 Arm64[ ]  macOS 15[ ]  macOS 15 Arm64[ ]  Windows Server 2019[ ]  Windows Server 2022[x]  Windows Server 2025

Mitigation ways

n/a

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