Hi,
Simple question, really. Hopefully, a simple answer.
Where is the .WIM file of a running Windows 10 system located? The image that DISM /online refers to?
In other words, if I wanted to make an offline change with DISM by booting the PC from a flash drive, how do I point DISM to the correct image?
So how do I tell what the path is to the wim of the currently running online image, so I can correctly refer to it offline?
Thanks.
There is no .wim file in an installed Windows 10. To use the /source option with DISM you need a Windows install ISO or USB for the version of Windows you are repairing (2004, 21H1, etc). The file you need is its install.wim found in the sources folder. If you have an ISO/USB made by the Media Creation Tool it will have an install.esd instead of an install.wim, but DISM can use that too. See part 6 or part 7 in this tutorial for more on this...
Use DISM to Repair Windows 10 Image
There is not a wim file in runningWindows. The wim file is part of the Windows pre environment as part of the installation package. Think of it like a zip file that gets extracted during installation.
If there is no WIM (or ESD) file in running Windows 10, DBDan22's question still stands; what is repaired when you do an online DISM restorehealth and where do you find it? I have inherited a bunch of PCs with Windows Enterprise and one is buggy. SFC won't complete as there is corruption in the device's own internal running copy of WIM, ESD or similar and I am loathe to wipe it. Something about it is preventing it from using Windows Update for a source and I can't lay hands on the correct copy of Win 10 Enterprise to extract a good wim file from, to do "dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth /source:C:\path\to\wimfile.wim" . So, I have installed the SSD as drive D in a PC with no corruption in its repair-store.
The command I think I want to run is something like:
What paths to files do I use?Code:dism /image:D:\path_to\corrupt-recovery-files\ /cleanup-image /restorehealth /source:C:\path_to\verified-recovery-files
Answering my own question... partly at least. Start the commandand if the PC I'm using to fix is on the same edition of Windows and has a reliable source (its own repair files or Windows Update), it'll work.Code:dism /image:D\ /cleanup-image /restorehealth
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This is how I got it to work:
Code:dism /image:D:\ /cleanup-image /restorehealth /source:C:\windows
If Windows 10 or Windows 11 has missing or corrupted system files, in this video, i will guide you how to repair the corrupted system files using the DISM and SFC command tools from Windows Recovery Environment.
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