Use DISM Offline to Repair Windows 10 Image (2 Ways)

Can DISM work offline?

“I have a machine running Win10 that was fine. But it would not boot one day. I tried my normal steps (eg: safe mode, system restore, sfc, bootrec) without success.” And then, I tried DISM in the offline mode and failed again. The command I used was: DISM.exe /Image:d:\ /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth /Source:d:\w10\install.wim /LimitAccess /scratchdir:d:\scratch I wonder if the syntax is wrong or how to use DISM offline repair Windows 10."

The DISM offers users an \ offline switch to perform DISM offline repair in Windows 10. You need to add it to your command and try again. If it still not working, the DISM.exe may not detect the image. To solve it, you need to mount the Windows ISO first and then try again. This article will introduce you to two effective methods below in detail. 

Additionally, a Windows image is a full copy of the Windows operating system used to quickly deploy, back up, and restore the Windows operating system, improving system management efficiency and security. So keeping a copy of a system image is needed. To save your efforts and energy, use a professional free backup software: AOMEI Backupper Standard.

How to use DISM offline repair in Windows 10

Here you will use DISM with /Online switch and \offline switch to perform DISM repair Windows 10 offline. If you have an offline backup image, directly try Method 2. If not, try Method 1 to mount the backup image first and then perform DISM offline repair.

Method 1: Perform Windows 10 DISM offline repair using DISM /Online

Notes: ◆ You need to make sure that the install.wim file is not in read-only mode, or DISM will fail to repair the image. ◆ DISM is case-sensitive, thus please be careful with the parameters or syntax. Any minor mistake could possibly cause irreversible losses. For example: if you type Install.win as install.wim, DISM will fail.

Part 1: Mount offline image for preparation 

Step 1. Download Windows 10 ISO from Microsoft support website.

Step 2. Open the MediaCreationToolxxx.exe file to access its setup window, and click Accept to agree with license terms.

Step 3. In the "What do you want to do?" window, select "Create installation media (USB flash drive, DVD or ISO file) for another PC". Then, click Next.

Step 4. Tick Use the recommended options for this PC or select language, architecture, and edition manually. Then click Next.

Step 5. In the "choose which media to use" window, select ISO file and click Next.

Step 6. Then, select a backup destination to store the ISO file and click Save. 

Step 7. In the last window, you will be asked to burn the ISO file to a DVD. Click the link below to open the file location with File Explorer, right-click the ISO file, and select Mount to recapture the image. 

Step 8. Confirm the drive letter for the recaptured image and remember it.  It saves the install.wim file you will use to repair offline image to the source folder. If the drive letter is F, you need to set the source path as F:\source.

Part 2: Perform DISM offline repair in Windows 10 

Step 1. Press WIN + X and select Command Prompt(Admin) in the search result list.

Step 2 (optional). Type the following commands to clean up the component store and analyze its size. Please remember to hit Enter after each command. 

• DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup

• DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /AnalyzeComponentStore

Step 3. Type the following command to repair Windows image with the known good files from install.wim file. Hit Enter is required.

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /source:F:\Sources\Install.wim:1 /LimitAccess

Note: The parameter /LimitAccess is to restrict the use of Windows Update.

Method 2: Perform DISM offline repair in Windows 10 with DISM /Image 

Except for DISM /online, you can directly use DISM /offline to perform DISM offline repair in Windows 10. This process requires the offline backup path to the root directory. Below are the steps:

Step 1. Run command prompt with priority.

Step 2. Type the following command and hit Enter to execute DISM offline repair Windows 10 using an ISO file.

Dism /Image: C:\offline /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source: c:\test\mount\windows

It is better to create a system image to prevent errors🔥

Windows image is essential for a computer to boot properly, if there is any error, your computer may fail to boot and you will lose all the data on it. You may not want to see this, and the repair process is quite complicated for many users, especially novices.

To prevent system failure or other serious problems, it's suggested to create a system image after DISM offline repair of Windows 10. The best backup freeware beforehand - AOMEI Backupper Standard helps you create a system image including the operating system, system files, drivers, custom settings, personal data, etc.

(PS: The free edition of AOMEI Backupper only supports Windows 10, 11, 8, 7, XP, and Vista. For server users, try AOMEI Backupper Server. )

Step 1. Launch this software. Then, click Backup and System Backup in order. 

Step 2. By default, the system partition and all the boot partitions will be selected. You just need to select a backup destination to store everything on the system partition. If you want to backup to an external disk or USB drive, please insert it into your computer.

Step 3. Click "Options", "Schedule Backup" and "Backup Scheme" to customize backup settings. Then, confirm everything is ok and click Start Backup to create a system image after DISM offline repair Windows 10.

Tips: ◆ Option: You can comment on a task, set compression level, enable email notification, etc. ◆ Schedule Backup: It includes five modes, that is, Daily/Weekly/Monthly/Event Triggers/USB plug-in.  ◆ Backup Scheme (advanced edition): It enables you to change the default backup method to differential backup, and delete old backups automatically with By quantity, By time, By daily/weekly/monthly, or By space cleanup method. 

✎... How to repair Windows 10 image with a backup image:

After creating a system image, you can use it to restore Windows image to new hard drive when something bad happens, for example, the Windows image is corrupted and DISM unluckily fails to repair Windows 10. 

Launch this software again, find the backup task on the Home tab or go to Restore tab, locate the system image and follow the wizard to complete the operation. 

You can also use it to restore system to a new computer with dissimilar hardware. More supporting, its Technician or Tech Plus edition allows you to create a portable version of this software to a removable device and use it on multiple Windows computers without installing it again. 

FAQ on DISM offline repair

1. What is DISM?

DISM, short for Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM.exe), is a command-line tool that can be used to service and prepare Windows images (with .wim or .vhd or vhdx format), including those used forWindows PE, Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE)andWindows Setup.

2. DISM/Online vs DISM/Image

• /Online switch: It's used to target the current running operating system. There are two requirements: first, the computer is booted into the operating system. Second, the backup image is recaptured and the DISM.exe can detect it.
• /Image switch: It's used to target offline Windows images, and it's usually a WIM, VHD or VHDX file.

3. How do I access DISM offline repair on my Windows 10 computer?

You can access DISM offline repair through the Command Prompt in Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE). You'll need to boot your computer into WinRE to run DISM commands.

4.  Can I use DISM offline repair to fix specific problems like BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) errors or system file corruption?

Yes, DISM offline repair can be effective in resolving various issues, including BSOD errors, system file corruption, and other system stability problems.

5. Is DISM offline repair safe for my Windows 10 system?

Generally, yes. DISM offline repair is a safe and reliable tool provided by Microsoft to repair your Windows installation. However, it's essential to follow instructions carefully and backup your important data before proceeding with any repair operation.

6. Are there any alternative methods to DISM offline repair for fixing Windows 10 issues?

Yes, there are alternative methods such as using System File Checker (sfc /scannow) or performing a system restore. However, DISM offline repair is particularly useful when other methods fail or when dealing with severe system corruption.

In sum

Reading here, you may already know how to use DISM offline to repair Windows 10 image when your computer does not work properly. But the repair process is not easy to follow, or it is not working. Thus, it's suggested to create a system image backup after repairing this image. With it, you can restore system image from external hard drive and get your computer back quickly. 

AOMEI Backupper Standard is not only a free backup software but also disk cloning software. So you can replace laptop HDD with SSD, clone NVMe to NVMe SSD, clone HDD to Samsung SSD, migrate OS to SSD, etc, and directly boot from it after cloning. For more features, please download it to explore yourself.