Sure way to fix Winre.wim not found
If you can’t find Winre.wim , which is necessary for rebuilding the Windows recovery environment (repair function) , you can extract Winre.wim by extracting the Windows ISO file image to the specified folder. . This page introduces how to extract from the ISO file when Winre.wim is not found and deal with it.For detailed instructions on how to rebuild the “WinRE” repair function of the Windows
Steps to extract Winre.wim from ISO file
Here, the procedure to extract Winre.wim using Windows11 is introduced, but the operation is exactly the same on Windows10.
1. Download the Windows ISO file
Download the Windows ISO file to get Winre.wim.If you have installation media, you can also use the media. How to do this is explained in the next section.Windows ISO files are available from the official download page.
- Official ISO file download page for Windows 11
- Official ISO file download page for Windows 10
How to download Windows ISO file
You can download the ISO file from the Microsoft official Windows download page. For Windows 11 you can download it directly, but for Windows 10 you need to use a tool. Instructions on how to download the ISO file are below.
- You can download the Windows 11 ISO file directly from the Windows 11 download page.
- For Windows 10, download the “Media Creation Tool” and run it to download the ISO file.
2-2. A virtual DVD drive will be created, so check the drive letter.
Here, the drive letter for the virtual DVD drive is ‘ F ‘. * To delete a virtual drive, click “Eject” in the right-click menu of the drive.
If you have installation media
If you have installation media, insert it into your computer and check the drive letter.
3. Check the Windows image index number
3-1. Start Command Prompt as administrator.
- After pressing the “Windows” key on your keyboard, press ” cmd “.
- When the search screen appears, click “Run as administrator” in Command Prompt.
*This operation is the same as entering “cmd” in the search.
3-2. Check the index number of the edition “Pro or Home” on which Windows is installed. In the command prompt, type the following command and press Enter.
Dism /Get-wiminfo /wimfile:"F:\sources\install.wim"When you see Deployment Image Servicing and Management Tools, check the index number for your edition .
Here we are using the “Home” edition as an example, so the index number is ” 1 “.
4. Extract the Windows image to the specified folder
Expand the image file that summarizes the folders and data that are the basics of Windows. 4-1. Create a folder to store the image for deploying Windows with the following command.
mkdir C:\WinOS\Here, as an example, a folder is created with the name “WinOS” in “Local Disk (C:\)”, but there is no problem if the folder name does not exist and is “half-width alphanumeric characters”.4-2. Deploy the Windows image.
In the command prompt, type the following command and press Enter.
Dism /mount-image /imagefile:"F:\sources\install.wim" /index:1 /mountdir:C:\WinOS /readonlyImportant command parts for Windows image deployment
- imagefile:” F : Virtual drive or drive letter of installation media
- index: 1 : edition index number
- C:\WinOS : Folder for storing images to deploy Windows
4-3. When the message “Mounting image” is displayed, wait. You can follow the progress with an indicator.
4-4.If “The operation completed successfully” is displayed, the deployment of the Windows image is complete.
5. Extract Winre.wim from the extracted image
Here, explanations are given using “File Explorer” instead of commands.
- Open the folder where the Windows image was expanded, and you can find Winre.wim in “Recovery” in “Windows” → “System32”.
- If you copy and paste “Winre.wim” and save it, the extraction of Winre.wim is completed.
Winre.wim is usually C:\Recoverysaved in the same location as above or in ” “, but Winre.wim can be used wherever you copy and paste and save it. If it is used for rebuilding or repairing WinRE in the recovery environment, there is no problem if you specify the save destination of Winre.wim.
How to remove a deployed Windows image
As an example, the deletion method is explained using the C:\WinOS folder where the image is expanded . Please change if necessary.2. Unmount the image by executing the “unmount-Image” command below.
Dism /unmount-Image /Mountdir:C:\WinOS /Discard- When you see “Unmounting image”, just wait.
- Unmounting is complete when “The operation completed successfully” is displayed.
3. Delete the folder where Windows is expanded by executing the “rmdir” command below. If no error is displayed, the deletion is complete.
rmdir /s /q C:\WinOSDescription of the command to delete a folder
- rmdir : remove folder
- /S : delete all files and folders in the folder
- /q : don’t show ‘YN’ confirmation on delete
More about removing mounted images
- Mounting generally means to make an OS such as Windows recognize an external disk drive, USB memory, or an SSD added to the PC and make it ready for use. Here, the image is expanded and mounted, so it will be recognized as part of the system
- When you extract and mount a Windows image (basic data), Windows considers it to be part of the system, so if you try to delete it, access is denied and you cannot delete it.
- By unmounting (Unmount-Image) the image that has been mounted (mount-image), the connection will be disconnected and it will be possible to delete it.