May 2019 Update ISO too Large for File System

May 2019 Update ISO too Large for File System

First let me say I know all the pros and cons of what I'm trying to do. Secondly, I know the alternatives, and will probably be forced to use one.

The background: I have seven computers to update and want to do it in the shortest time possible. Because MCT hasn't always been the easiest thing to use, I decided to go the UUPDump route.

The first thing I did was to grab the Build 18912 ISO to have "just in case". I transferred the ISO to a new 16GB flash drive, which worked flawlessly. So, I went for the Feature Update to Windows 10, version 1903 (18362.145) amd64, as shown in the first line of the screenshot below:



Everything seemed to go as it should; I unblocked the zip file, then extracted the files:



So, as you can see, I opened the folder and proceeded to transfer the ISO to another new 16GB flash drive. Whoops! What is this!?!



I have gone back and tried again a number of times, but still get the same result.

Anyone know what I did wrong?

bobkn said:

I don't follow what you did, but there's a 4GB limit for a single file on a FAT32 formatted drive.

Does that have anything to do with your issue?

Not sure, Bob. However, because I was able to transfer Build 18912 (Fast/Skip Ahead) to one of the same flash drives I'm working with (I bought six of the same 16GB flash drives), I wouldn't think so, but I'll check to be sure.

Oh, and I did skip a few of the steps I actually took.

Edit: OK, formatting the flash drive to NTFS worked; however, that leaves another question . . . why on earth did Build 18912 go right onto the exact same drive? The ISO is over 4GB, just as is the ISO for Build 18362.145!

bobkn said:

I don't follow what you did, but there's a 4GB limit for a single file on a FAT32 formatted drive.

Does that have anything to do with your issue?

Wynona said:

I wouldn't think so, but I'll check to be sure.

Wynona, your issue has everything to do with FAT32 file size limit of 4 GB. The ISO file is bigger than 4 GB, not much but as the limit is exact, it's enough to make it impossible to copy it to a FAT32 partition on a USB flash drive.

If you mount the ISO and copy its content to USB Flash Drive, it should work because no single file in that ISO exceeds 4 GB. It's the combined size of all files, the ISO file itself that exceeds the file size limit.

In case the install.wim file is bigger than 4 GB, as often with custom WIM images, see @Martin's excellent tutorial to workaround this FA32 file size limit: Create bootable USB installer if install.wim is greater than 4GB

Kari

Is a install.wim file?
If so, you can split it into multiple and smaller install.swm using dism

Dism CMD
Dism /Split-Image /ImageFile:install.wim /SWMFile:install.swm /FileSize:3600

Kari and Bobkn are correct, Wynona. I see what you're try to do. You're trying to avoid the Cumulative Updates by using the 18362.145 instead of the base .30 (I believe it's still that). As stated before elsewhere, if you use the base .30 as an in-place, and do not tell the process to not check for updates (it defaults to "check for updates"), you will end up with .145. In the worst case, it is 1 cumulative to apply. But I believe you will end up with 18362.145.

Megahertz said:

Is a install.wim file?
If so, you can split it into multiple and smaller install.swm using dism or wimlib-imagex.exe.

Dism CMD
Dism /Split-Image /ImageFile:install.wim /SWMFile:install.swm /FileSize:3600

Attached Wimlib

It is easier to use this since MS allowed multiple partitions to be created on removable us flash drives.

Create bootable USB installer if install.wim is greater than 4GB

Think she's trying to do in-place upgrade 1809>1903 using an ISO on a thumb. Plug in, mount, setup.exe. Wynona will have to verify.

Wynona said:

. . . why on earth did Build 18912 go right onto the exact same drive? The ISO is over 4GB, just as is the ISO for Build 18362.145!

For an unknown reason, sometimes it works in Windows. Go figure!

Another option, is to format the flash drive exFAT.

In OpenSUSE, the following must be installed to read the flash drive.

Yast>Software Management>Search>exfat>Install the 2 RPM Packages>Accept>No need to restart>Flash Drive is readable immediatlly. Requires an active Internet connection.

Code:

Installing exfat-utils-1.3.0-1.3.x86_64.rpm (installed size 237 KiB)
Installing fuse-exfat-1.3.0-1.3.x86_64.rpm (installed size 78.7 KiB)

Useful when downloading Windows 10 Final ISO from Linux. exFAT is compatible with MAC.

NTFS.com. NTFS vs FAT vs exFAT

Edit: Update the installation method, knowing now that it is for students.

Wynona said:

I have gone back and tried again a number of times, but still get the same result.

Anyone know what I did wrong?

Why are you trying to copy the ISO file itself to a FAT32 flash drive? You should mount the ISO file and copy the files and folders to the FAT32 flash drive.

I have a 32GB flash drive that I prepare in the usual way, FAT32 partition marked as active. Ran UUP dump for the "Feature update to Windows 10, version 1903 (18362.145) amd64". I mounted the ISO file and copied the files and folders to my FAT32 formatted USB flash drive. I got an install.wim file that contains:

Code:

T:\sources>dism /get-wiminfo /wimfile:install.wim

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.18362.1

Details for image : install.wim

Index : 1
Name : Windows 10 Home
Description : Windows 10 Home
Size : 14,601,642,171 bytes

Index : 2
Name : Windows 10 Pro
Description : Windows 10 Pro
Size : 14,794,253,163 bytes

Index : 3
Name : Windows 10 Home N
Description : Windows 10 Home N
Size : 13,787,505,776 bytes

Index : 4
Name : Windows 10 Pro N
Description : Windows 10 Pro N
Size : 13,981,669,556 bytes

and

Code:

T:\sources>dism /get-wiminfo /wimfile:install.wim /index:2

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.18362.1

Details for image : install.wim

Index : 2
Name : Windows 10 Pro
Description : Windows 10 Pro
Size : 14,794,253,163 bytes
WIM Bootable : No
Architecture : x64
Hal : <undefined>
Version : 10.0.18362
ServicePack Build : 145
ServicePack Level : 0
Edition : Professional
Installation : Client
ProductType : WinNT
ProductSuite : Terminal Server
System Root : WINDOWS
Directories : 19685
Files : 89891
Created : 6/9/2019 - 5:10:58 PM
Modified : 6/9/2019 - 5:49:35 PM
Languages :
        en-US (Default)

The isntall.wim file is 3,778,296 KB or 3.6 GB which is no where near the FAT32 single file limit.

Then, whatever computer you want to upgrade, you insert the USB flash drive and run setup.exe from it.