How to convert ESD files to WIM files

Learn how to convert ESD files to WIM files, by exporting the file using DISM. In this example, I go over the process of extracting the install.wim file out of the Windows 11 install.esd file using PowerShell and DISM.
Inspect ESD:
dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:install.esd
Export WIM:
dism /export-image /SourceImageFile:install.esd /SourceIndex:6 /DestinationImageFile:install.wim /CheckIntegrity /Compress:max
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Hi, I’m Danny Moran, a London based IT consultant and blogger. You can view all my blog posts at: www.dannymoran...

[@nortenhardenberg1598]

Tank You very much. The commands, You've given under Your guid: was much faster, without tipping!

[@danny_moran]

Thanks for watching!

[@indidginus]

Thanks for this Danny. Been struggling to get install.wim from my usb install.esd and this has helped me do that. Much appreciated. Don't know why Microsoft make all this so damn hard 🤣

[@danny_moran]

Thanks for watching!

[@sirfaap1234]

You are great! I appreciate your efforts! File has started to be converted. Thanks!

[@danny_moran]

Thanks for watching!

[@oOvanillaskyOo]

worked like a charm. thank you :)

[@danny_moran]

Thanks for watching!

[@KshooTV]

Thanks for such a clean and easy video!

[@danny_moran]

Thanks for watching!

[@joppy-yh5oi]

tysm i might be fix my computer bc of this vid my sfc and dism broke so hopefully it can fix now

[@danny_moran]

Thanks for watching!

[@grpantsch]

Much appreciated, thanks! 👍🙂

[@danny_moran]

Thanks for watching!

[@Or1onBelt]

Thanks mate. Needed this step. Cheers

[@danny_moran]

Thanks for watching!

[@rrxsario]

Thanks mate, God bless you

[@danny_moran]

Thanks for watching!

[@celeb_dates]

Goat

[@danny_moran]

Thanks for watching!

[@ahmedelkholy9334]

THANK YOU VERY MUCH THAT HELPED ME ALOT😌

[@danny_moran]

Thanks for watching!

[@gauravrawani4239]

Thank you so much sir it's working

[@danny_moran]

Thanks for watching!

[@scooter2478guy]

​ @danny_moran Great video. I know this is an old post, but hopefully you can help. Do you know if there is a way to select multiple indexes for the different versions of windows? like selecting windows home, pro and education?

[@danny_moran]

I looked into this a while ago and don't recall there being an option to enter a range of IDs into the SourceIndex value. You have to run the command multiple times and change the SourceIndex value to whichever one you want to export.
Thanks for watching!

[@wickylink8491]

Thank you sir

[@danny_moran]

Thanks for watching!

[@raven_uk6581]

@Danny Moran The Windows 10 installation ISO file is a bit too large to fit on a 4.7GB DVD (up 100 MB). Maybe there is a way to remove some of the unneeded windows versions from install.esd (or to use a higher compression ratio) file to fit it on to a single layer DVD?

[@danny_moran]

I'm not sure that this is possible. It would probably be best to get a 16GB USB drive and use that instead of a DVD.
Thanks for watching!

[@ProDMiner]

TYSM

[@danny_moran]

Thanks for watching!

[@VORTRAK11]

Thanks bro!!!

[@danny_moran]

Thanks for watching! Hope it was useful for you!

[@techvishnuyt]

thank you so much brother

[@danny_moran]

Thanks for watching!

[@HamzaAli-py7qz]

Thank you

[@danny_moran]

Thanks for watching!

[@yutehube4468]

The WIM ended up about 1.6 times bigger than the ESD and I don't know of any way to compress the WIM back to a size somewhere near the size of the original ESD. I am sure it's possible, because I have converted Windows 10 ESD to WIM and it didn't balloon up in size like this one does. 🤔
*ESD to WIM:*
dism /export-image /SourceImageFile:C:\11temp\sources\install.esd /SourceIndex:1 /DestinationImageFile:C:\11temp\sources\install.wim /Compress:max /CheckIntegrity
*WIM to ESD:*
dism /export-image /SourceImageFile:C:\11temp\sources\install.wim /SourceIndex:1 /DestinationImageFile:C:\11temp\sources\install.esd /Compress:recovery /CheckIntegrity

[@danny_moran]

I would expect the WIM file to be larger in size than the WIM file as the ESD files are generally compressed more.
What is it that you are trying to achieve?
Thanks for watching!

[@michelin_tim]

Mine keeps saying "The specified buffer contains ill-formed data" can u help me please

[@danny_moran]

Sounds like the iso file might be corrupt, or maybe your os has corruption or a failing hard drive.
Can't really provide much guidance without more information, unfortunately.

[@5coldplay]

Do I add this .wim file back into the folder with the contents of the ISO?

[@danny_moran]

No, you don't need to add the win file back into the iso file.
If you are extracting the wim file to use in a deployment solution, you can just import the wim into the deployment software.
Thanks for watching!

[@reinaldogoncalves2867]

is it possible to fit all indexes in the same .wim file?

[@danny_moran]

I've never done it, but, apparently, it can be done.
If you keep running the same command but change the SourceIndex but point it to the same DestinationImageFile, then it should put it into the one wim file.
Thanks for watching!

[@BiWhiteEUW]

thanks bro

[@danny_moran]

Thanks for watching!

[@jankowalewski7412]

Tank You

[@danny_moran]

Thanks for watching!

[@ollaholla764]

it says i dont have enough storage for the wim file, my flash drive has 24gb available storage. theres no way the .wim file is bigger than 24 gigs when the .esd file is only 3.9 gigs right?

[@danny_moran]

Is the flash drive formatted using NTFS or FAT32? If it's FAT32, then that's probably why you're getting the error.
Thanks for watching!

[@ollaholla764]

thanks for the quick reply. yes it is FAT32, is there any other way i can convert this esd file into wim file?

[@danny_moran]

You can either copy the esd file to your desktop and convert it there, or you can re-format your flash drive to an NTFS format.

[@ollaholla764]

yes, sorry for that dumb question, i decided to convert it on my ssd and there was no problem, thank you for your easy tutorial

[@danny_moran]

Glad you got it converted in the end.

[@kookverslaving]

Awesome, greatly appreciated.

[@danny_moran]

Thanks for watching!

[@akhyarrayhka4048]

need help why is when i try to do that, access is denied???

[@danny_moran]

Try running your terminal as an Administrator.
Thanks for watching!

[@akhyarrayhka4048]

@@danny_moran still access denied, the problem start from where i cannot update windows then it says on Microsoft that i need to resize WinRE but when i try to get winRE its not found, and when i try to enable it with wim files, the access is denied.

[@not_javanedits]

bro where did you get that install.esd?

[@danny_moran]

I got the ESD file from within my Windows 11 ISO file.
Thanks for watching!

[@not_javanedits]

@@danny_moran thank you bro i was wasting my time searching on google installing install.esd actually ks from win 10 iso

[@user-xh9uc7mh4r]

big thank you are wonderfull😍

[@danny_moran]

Thanks for watching!

[@tecproductions7175]

Unfortunately this did not work for. Error 5, access is denied

[@danny_moran]

You need to run your PowerShell/CMD terminal as an Administrator. Once you run as Administrator, you won't get this error.

[@ooplycrossing2744]

@@danny_moran I've ran it as admin, but it still says that :c

[@felipeporto429]

Hi Danny, thanks a lot...it work for me but only in my local machine. In the server (Windows Server 2008) i have a issue to execute the commands but i think is because the Powershell from Windows Server 2008 dont recognize the commands since this OS is too old rsrsrs Another question, can i generate this file .wim in my local machine and export to my Server 2008 to import on MDT?

[@danny_moran]

Yes, you can run the command on your local machine to export the .wim file out of the .esd file, and then copy that to the server to import into Microsoft Deployment Toolkit.
DISM was introduced with Windows Sever 2008 R2, which will by why you are getting the error on your server as the version you are running doesn't include the newer tools.

[@felipeporto429]

@@danny_moran Thansk for your help!! I just need import this install.wim file? Or MDT needs all archives from the Pen Drive bootable?

[@danny_moran]

The install.wim file contains everything MDT requires. All you need to do is import that into MDT.

[@dogffdayck6367]

How to export all index

[@danny_moran]

I can't see anything in the Microsoft documentation about exporting everything at once, so I don't think it's possible. You will have to do it one index at a time.
Thanks for watching!

[@user-ry5fw5xz4i]

esd to iso in cmd？

[@danny_moran]

I don't think you create ISO files out of ESD files without 3rd party software.
Thanks for watching!

[@_Blacklagoon_]

EZ

[@danny_moran]

Thanks for watching!

[@karolmroz4724]

I wrote a simple PowerShell script to do that.
indexnum = (Get-WindowsImage -ImagePath "PathToInstall.esd").Count
for ($num = 1; $num -le $indexnum; $num++) {

Export-WindowsImage -SourceImagePath "PathToInstall.esd" -SourceIndex $num -DestinationImagePath "PathToInstall.wim" -CompressionType max -CheckIntegrity
Start-Sleep 5 # Wait for DISM to finish
}

[@danny_moran]

Thanks for watching, and posting this script!

[@Blokyyy]

Thx a lot

[@danny_moran]

Thanks for watching!

[@talha4201]

thank you so much

[@danny_moran]

Thanks for watching!