Acronis Survival Kit error, unable to mount the source .wim file

Dan,

A .wim (Windws Image) file is a compressed file which contains the actual Windows image to be booted. Mounting a wim means the file is basically uncompressed into a folder. The process is handled by components of Windows.

I suspect earlier problems you mentioned may have left things in a bad state. What is needed is to see if the wim is assumed to be mounted and then try to get it unmounted in order to try again.

I suggest you download the MVP Assistant Version 2.7.1 (link in my signature below). Unpack the .zip file into a folder and then run the MVPAssistant.exe as an Administrator. Select the Rescue Media component. From the Image menu, select Mount Points. In the normal case there should be none, but I think you have the mount point there.

Please check that out and report the results here.

Hello Dan.

I have informed the team about your participation in this thread.

Please note that we sent you an email on the 30th of June but so far we didn't receive any reply.

Please reply to our emails so our support can be aware of the issue and help you.

Feel free to update this thread anytime.

Thanks.

Thank you BrunoC...

I have been busy for the last few days and am just getting back to trying your recommendation.  I did:

- Installed MVPAssistant 2.7.1
- Ran as administrator from CMD
- Chose Rescue Media
- Selected "Image" from the top horizontal menu and got the two optioins below:
  Source
  Rescan for applications and packages
- From the "Image" button on the top horizontal menu I see no option "mount points", just the 2 listed above

Well, somehow I hit advanced on the top horizontal tab and now see under "image" Mount Points as an option.
I have a window that says "Mount Points: none"

Darn, was hoping that was the issue.  Is there something else I might try ?

Dan, you could try to create a new project with the MVP Assistant rescue media builder. In the Image/Source, is the WinRE option available? If so, select that and Acquire the image. Just checking for if there is a fault in your winre.wim?

I did create a new project, did an AQUIRE of the WinRE.wim file sucessfully, albeit true it took about 3 minutes to complete while viewing a spining activity icon... but it did report successfully aquired file.

Then went on to BUILD, BUILD USB Drive, it proceeded, gave me several options withing media builder reference to typical or not, and location, all was going good.  Then hit proceed and got the below message after about 1 minute.

I had actually thought that as it did aquire WinRE.wim successfully I was over the road block.

I beleive it was an exact graphics page I uploaded in original message.  Exactly same message:

UNABLE TO CREAT BOOT MEDIA... UNABLE TO MOUNT SOURCE .WIM FILE.

I did do a screen shot, but for some reason today I get the message "The file could not be uploaded" for any file I am trying to upload... haven't figured that out yet. Yes, supported file type and less than 3Mb.. 

But anyway, it appears to be the exact splash page that "Media Builder" gave me originally when attempting to build a rescue disk from within Acronis.

Dan,

First, I would not expect a 3 minute time to acquire the .wim file. On my SSD it takes maybe 2 or 3 seconds. That in itself indicates an issue, I suspect, with your recovery partition.

The message you refer to... UNABLE TO CREATE BOOT MEDIA, etc. is not something my media builder puts out so I cannot explain where that comes from. I would need to see the exact image you see.

In your project folder, there is a Log subfolder. Can you show the logs produced there.

Dan,

Can you tell us if your PC is a new machine?  If not did you install Windows 11 or did the machine come with it pre-installed?

If this is a new machine what brand is it?

I believe the UNABLE TO MOUNT SOURCE .WIM FILE. error is possibly due to your PC being new and made by an OEM such as Dell or HP etc.  It is common these days that an OEM will deploy Windows environment installations to high numbers of machines as once from a single machine running MDT (Microsoft Development Tools) via a remote session.  In this scenario the OEM machine is called a  technician PC which runs the MDT to create a custom image for mass deployment.  During this process a custom WinRE is also prepared and added to the installation image created by the technician PC. 

When deployment of these custom images is done via a remote session it is required that an admin level sign in is used to do so.  If this remote session is not logged out properly after deployment, and image cleanup performed your WinRE may not be usable as a Source WIM file as the admin account used to create the image is not available so that mounting can be performed.

The MVP Rescue Builder is a very capable tool and if it cannot mount a WIM file which seems to be the case here then this suggests that there is a problem with the wim file itself.  Fortunately Windows PowerShell can be used to discover if in fact a remote server is still logged in to a local machine deployment (your machine).

The PS commands to do this can be found at this Link 

If you discover that your machine still has a remote server logged into your PC I would have some strong words with the OEM about that as that is very sloppy work and renders even the OEM recovery tools useless to mount a recovery wim file to restore the PC to factory settings.

Dan, while I could not make any assessment as to why the wim might be bad, and I think Enchantech has some interesting theories here, I do tend to agree that the wim itself may be in bad shape. On a new PC that should not be the case.

My first thought is to use Dism directly to mount the wim file. It is fairly easy to do from an elevated command prompt. Let's just see if Dism can do it without any other software involved.

My second thought would be to actually try to boot into the recovery environment. This site explains that process...
https://www.elevenforum.com/t/boot-to-advanced-startup-winre-in-windows-11.425/
If the WinRE.wim is bad, I would assume failure to boot.

Thirdly, if it is possible to place the WinRE.wim file in a location where I could download it and try to mount it here, I'd be willing to try that.

If you need help with the steps to do these things, let us know.

Dan Cannon wrote:

I did create a new project, did an AQUIRE of the WinRE.wim file sucessfully, albeit true it took about 3 minutes to complete while viewing a spining activity icon... but it did report successfully aquired file.

Then went on to BUILD, BUILD USB Drive, it proceeded, gave me several options withing media builder reference to typical or not, and location, all was going good.  Then hit proceed and got the below message after about 1 minute.

I had actually thought that as it did aquire WinRE.wim successfully I was over the road block.

I beleive it was an exact graphics page I uploaded in original message.  Exactly same message:

UNABLE TO CREAT BOOT MEDIA... UNABLE TO MOUNT SOURCE .WIM FILE.

I did do a screen shot, but for some reason today I get the message "The file could not be uploaded" for any file I am trying to upload... haven't figured that out yet. Yes, supported file type and less than 3Mb.. 

But anyway, it appears to be the exact splash page that "Media Builder" gave me originally when attempting to build a rescue disk from within Acronis.

Hello Dan.

Our team sent you 4 emails, but so far we didn't got any response.

Please review your email and reply over there because the ticket is about to be closed by inactivity. I have informed the team to wait for your reply.

Thanks in advance! 

BrunoC,

I went to the link you provided and now see messages from you and Enchantech I had not viewed before.  
In answer to Ehchantech's questions:
- I have had the machine for 16 months, not new
- It is an LG, Windows 11 was installed on it
- When upgrades arrive I have installed successfully
- All seemed fine for the entire 16 months, using Acronis and multiple USB drives
- And, issues frist started arising when Acronis rescue media builder reported partition size became too small, received sk_size.exe from Acronis support, used successfully, and all good after that.
- Then another issue came up and an Acronis support person using zoom came to my system, downloaded ADK? which I was unfamiliar with and used it to somehow resolve my problem.  I must admit I did not understand everything that was done with it by the support person.   
- I first saw this .wim mounting  issue arise trying to build "rescue media" to a newly obtained Samsung 2Tb, USB, SSD as of 2 weeks ago.
- And, am unable to upgraded my rescue kits on other USB drives as the same problem manifests.

Now that I have seen all  messages in this string with a multiple suggestions,  let me read and absorb them carefully.  I will follow the suggestions precisely... and get back with you and Enchantech.

Jose Pedro M.,  reference below message:

Hello Dan.
Our team sent you 4 emails, but so far we didn't got any response.
Please review your email and reply over there because the ticket is about to be closed by inactivity. I have informed the team to wait for your reply.
Thanks in advance! 

Thank you for not closing my ticket... I have not been ignoring, but honestly did not see and will reply back now to work with the Acronis support team as well.
Thanks.
Dan

See webpage: Getting Started with Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) - which may be of some help here.

Ehchantech,
Thanks again for the info above.  Since the machine is over a year old, worked fine for a over a year in all aspects of creating rescue media from Acronis, I am thinking it was good up till a short time ago.

Now that I have thought back, remember an Acronis Tech remotely accessing my machine & downloading ADK, then utilizing it in a way I did not follow, I wonder if that might have inserted a problem here.  Albeit true, the .wim file/buiding rescue media problem did not manifest after that.

I have read everything you and BrunoC have provided me with and it is an eye opener !  Heck, I have been using PC's prior to Windows, prior to MSDOS, BUT when only CPM was availalbe (lol, I am now 72), and felt pretty comfortable...  & managed DEC VMS, Unix, & Oracle environments for decades, finaly I became "legacy" and have fallen behind a bunch after 10 years of non-professional involvment.  But, now I am almost overwhelmed as to what I did not have a clue to.

So, Bruno, I want to attempt your 1st suggestion, as in:

" My first thought is to use Dism directly to mount the wim file. It is fairly easy to do from an elevated command prompt. Let's just see if Dism can do it without any other software involved".
 
I have spent the day trying to learn how to do this correctly & without making this situation worse, but, the more I learn the more I feel I would like to take you up on you offer of assistance on how to do correctly. 
Seems the how is not that intuitive or easily found on the internet.
With the tools of dism, adk, available, I have not figured out quite how to directly mount the wim file with Dism.
Couild you provide me the commands please ?
Darn, that sure hurts one pride to have to ask like that, lol !
 

Dan, I too am from 51. Not to worry.

First, a few statements and assumptions for what will follow. Just trying to put everything into context.

- a .wim file is a Windows Image file. It is basically liked a zipped up version(s) of Windows.
- WinPE is a Windows Preinstallation Environment. It is basically a very small version of Windows and is used to install/repair Windows installations
- WinRE is a Windows Recovery Environment. It is a version of WinPE with recovery functionality. WinRE is based on WinPE. The WinRE which is included in the Recovery partition often contains the necessary drivers, etc. to work on your specific system. When you buy a Windows system from a major manufacturer, WinRE should be good to go. WinRE is updated by Windows whenever Windows Update installs a new feature update which is a newer version than the WinRE existing. So, your WinRE should be the same build version as your Windows installation.
- The ADK is just the kit used to work with .wim file. It is not a part of standard Windows and must be explicitly downloaded. The ADK has an add-on to install a WinPE .wim file. The version of the ADK/WinPE should be the right version for what you are doing.
- DISM is the Deployment Imaging and Servicing Management tool. It is used to work with .wim files. While being a part of the ADK, stock Windows also contains DISM so you don't need the ADK to run it. Documentation is at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/dism-image-management-command-line-options-s14?view=windows-11. You can also just execute dism /?
- Mounting a .wim file is a process of unpacking the file into the WinPE/WinRE folder structure. It is done through DISM because there are methods to add and remove features, drivers, languages, etc. to the WinPE.
- Just to add some complexity, a .wim file can actually contain multiple WinPE versions (e.g. Windows Home, Pro, Enterprise, etc.). Each one has an index. In our case the Index will be 1 as there should only be one version.

OK, there is background to the pieces.

In order to mount the .wim, you need the wim, and a folder to unpack it to. So let us assume a couple drive locations just for drill... you can change them if desired.

1. Assume you place the WinRE.wim file in C:\Test\Wim\WinRE.wim
2. Assume you want to mount to C:\Test\Mount (create that folder)

Now, open an elevated command prompt. And, if you have spaces in your paths, use quotes around them on the dism commands.

To just get some basic information about the .wim file...
Dism /Get-ImageInfo /ImageFile:C:\Test\Wim\WinRE.wim

To mount the .wim file...
Dism /Mount-Image /ImageFile:C:\Test\Wim\WinRE.wim /Index:1 /MountDir:C:\Test\Mount  /CheckIntegrity
Because of your issue, you might want to run with the /CheckIntegrity option, but it is not necessary.

After this command, and assuming it worked, you should see folders such as
C\Test\Mount\Program Files
C\Test\Mount\Program Files (x86)
C\Test\Mount\Windows
C\Test\Mount\Users

Be sure to unmount the .wim if it is mounted...
Dism /Unmount-Image /MountDir:C:\test\offline /discard
I've included the /discard option to forget about any changes made (not that you actually will be changing anything).

I hope this gets you well into the next step of analysis.

Bruno, +1.

Dan,

Well, I am from 53 so as Bruno says, not to worry!

Steve Smith posted a great article which you should read through.  If your mount attempt fails as outlined by Bruno above you might fix it using the procedures found in the linked article.

I note that you say an Acronis Support Tech had a remote session on your PC and installed ADK on it.  You might wish to see if it is still installed. You should find it in the folder structure as shown in the image below:

Expanding the Assessment and Deployment Kit branch will reveal if the WinPE add on was installed along with the ADK, just look for folder Windows Preinstallation Environment.  If you find that the ADK and WinPE add on are installed on your PC you can use the MVP Rescue Builder tool to build a new project and select WinPE as the source, the builder will locate the WinPE.wim automatically for you.  It would be interesting to know if there are any issues mounting a WinPE.wim file?

My earlier suggestion is an extreme long shot but I have seen some poor practices in recent years with OEM machines like leaving network booting turned on in the bios settings on new machines!  Go figure!

Dan, to add to Enchantech's (the kid) post...

Just look at the MVP Assistant rescue builder. For a new project, if the ADK is installed and WinPE is available it will give you the option to select it in the Image/Source box. If it's not found or is out of date, it will also let you know.

Bruno & Enchantec,

Thanks soooo much for taking the time and patience to lay out everything
about the .wim  environment for me.  I will always remember you took the
time.

I did several things  today  in  terms  of  trying to learn how to do the .
.wim mounting myself.  
As in:
- First trying to remember  why the Acronis Support person, obtained via
  chat, had felt she had to download ADK  and  then use it.  I could not
  remember  but do remember that whatever she did appeared  to  fix  the
  problem at the time.
- Then I tried to find and run it to no avail.   Not thinking to simply go to the  
  SEARCH button and typing the name.
- So, thought I would go to the downloads directory where the setup file
  for ADk had been put.  Upon running it said WIN 8.
- I then went to SETTINGS, APPS, and deinstalled it.
- Then went to a MicroSoft site and downloaded what I felt  was a WIN 11
  version and installed
- Upon running as admin, it stated it was the wrong version and  to  go
  get the current version for WIN 11.  
- Again,  I  deinstalled the ADK, for the 2nd time, went to a Microsoft
  location and very specifically obtained a WIN 11 version & installed
- This time upon starting it successfully came up and said:
  CHANGE  or  DOWNLOAD
  Not wanting  to  download  anything  I hit CHANGE, then it said it was
  changing ? Changing what I thought ? Hit cancel.
- Also, I installed WinPE, as it seemed to be necessary from what I read
- After reading  everything  I  could  I  felt  I  could get myself into
  trouble  pretty easy so  decided  to  take  you, Bruno,  up  on  your  offer  of
  assistance.
- Upon reading your reply, context statement, and steps I proceeded.
- Became a bit confused upon one of your steps, as in:

                             --------------
    In order to mount the .wim, you need the wim, and a folder to unpack
    it to.  So let us  assume  a  couple drive locations just for drill...
    you can change them if desired.

    1. Assume you place the WinRE.wim file in C:\Test\Wim\WinRE.wim
    2. Assume you want to mount to C:\Test\Mount (create that folder)
                             --------------

 - Specifically with above...  I know I am to create the directories but
   where do I get the WinRE.wim file from to put into c:\test\wim ?
 - So, I stopped here, went looking for WinRE.wim  to  put in the folder
   c:\test\wim I was to create.  
   Never found it with the command:
   dir c:\WinRE.wim /s
   Then did:
   dir c:\*.wim /s and found lots of files
 - But decided to really be certain with name I  was  searching  for and
   did the Acronis Rescue Media creation function again.

 - The problem is gone !!!!! 
   The .wim file is now found by Acronis Rescue Media builder, my rescue
   kit is  sucessful  in  its creation.  Tried on 2 other USB drives and
   the .wim file is now found in all cases !
 
 - I am  guessing  the  deinstallation  of ADK somehow resolved a locked
   file or returned things to a normal state ?
   
 - I now have  another issue with 2 other USB drives that I will address
   and attempted to upgrade the  rescue  kit  on.  After practically doing
   everything sucessfully when copying files to the usb they now say they
   cannot copy files...  
   albeit true, the SSD USB, 2Tb drive DID successfully complete the installation,
 
  BOTTOM LINE, the inability to mount the .wim file is gone !!!
               the new problem is something I will now work on.

  FYI, I did use diskpart as in:

    list disk   (to identify USB drive, i.e. 2)
    select disk 2
    clean
    create partition primary
    active
    format fs=ntfs quick
    assign
    exit

  So see  if  that  would  fix the problem of not being able to copy the
  files to the 2 USB drives that failed during rescue media build.  Did not help.

  But again, the problem we were working is GONE, and that USB drive did
  complete the rescue kit build successfully.  That was the 2Tb, SSD, USB drive.

  Thinking that is enough  for today and am glad the .wim mounting issue
  is gone !

AGAIN, thank you BrunoC & Enchantec... your patience & time will always
be appreciated !
  

Enchantec,
Did not see your message till I had done all above.
Thinking you were on the right track with what I should see with ADK installation as the only thing I could have done to unknowing fix the "unable to mount .wim file problem was the deinstallation of ADK.
I will still go back and review some the the tecniques both you and BrunoC suggested above in your messages and test to see how they work in a now (what appears to be a normal) environment.  And will provide feedback on that soon.

Thanks

Dan, very pleased to hear it is working although I have no idea why.

You asked where the .wim is...

WinRE.wim should exist on your system. It will generally be in a Recovery partition located after your system partition. The System Configuration component of the MVP Assistant should tell you.

If it is not located there, it could be located in C:\Windows\System32\Recovery. It should be in one of those two places (but not both), preferably on the Recovery partition.

The ADK is used to provide a compatible WinPE.wim file. Unlike the WinRE, which should have drivers needed by your system, WinPE is a base system, not configure for your hardware.

In building rescue media, you can select to use either WinRE or the ADK (WinPE).

I do not  use the Survival Kit approach. I simply create a rescue media on a small thumb drive. The only time I created a Survival Kit was when I had an old laptop that had only one available USB port. But even for that it was unnecessary.

If you want to try to simply create a rescue media on a thumb drive, you could try that using the Acronis Tools/Media Builder. Or, using MVP Assistant... run in EZ-Mode to just create a project and build.

BrunoC,

Even though it is now working I want to be sure I understand EXACTLY what you were going to have me do.  In that one of my approaches to proactive troubleshooting is to find out how diagnostics & tools work when all is working correctly.

And, I want to ensure the directory structure that Enchantec pointed out in message above is in place.

Yes, it was always my habit to always create a "rescue partiton" on all my USB drives... think I will take your example and just do as you have done & suggested with the thumbdrive.  Sometimes I just get in a routine and stick to it even if not necessary.

Thanks,
Dan

Steve Smith,

Thanks for your assistance in providing the link:

Getting started with Windows Recovery Environment

I will read and glean the good info.

Dan

Jose Pedro Magalhaes

Thanks for your assistance in keeping me in tune with my Service Ticket.
I now consider this call closed as the problem has disappeared.
I can guess what resolved it but cannot pinpoint it for sure.

As usual Acronis is the best in terms of support and product !

Thanks for all continued support.

Dan

BrunoC,

As I mentioned I wanted to complete the actions on your list reference mounting WinRE.wim.
Which I did, and the example results of the commands you provided aren't exactly what I think was expected.  I will just put a page paste here to be examined and to obtain your opinion as to if this is good or bad ?

Specifically what I did not see was a directory structure ?

C:\z\test\winre>Dism /Mount-Image /ImageFile:C:\z\Test\Winre\WinRE.wim /Index:1 /MountDir:C:\z\Test\Mount /CheckIntegrity

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.22621.1

Mounting image
[==========================100.0%==========================]
The operation completed successfully.

C:\z\test\winre>Dism /Unmount-Image /MountDir:C:\z\test\ /discard

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.22621.1

The DISM log file can be found at C:\WINDOWS\Logs\DISM\dism.log

C:\z\test\winre>Dism /Unmount-Image /MountDir:C:\z\test\mount /discard

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.22621.1

Unmounting image
[==========================100.0%==========================]
The operation completed successfully.
C:\z\test\winre>

I take the above back, there is a discrepancy.  That is MVP states the WinRE partition is 512MB in size.
I beleive I am finding that WinRE might exist on multiple recovery partitions in that the partition I mounted was 1001MB.  I might have felt I chose the right one in that it had the WinRE file structure on it... but with mountvol it is kind of a crapshoot to choose the correct partition by the cryptic description without size or partition indicated.  Let me reveriy I have chosen the right recovery partition.
 

Dan, not sure where you're going with this.

Two posts back, you say "Specifically what I did not see was a directory structure ?". What were you looking at and when? Before unmounting, you should see the WinPE directory structure under C:\z\test\mount. Once you unmount, those directories are gone.

I don't know how you brought the wim file to C:\z\Test\Winre\WinRE.wim. The easiest way to get the wim file is to just create a project in the MVP Assistant rescue media builder and Acquire the image, thus copying it to the project folder.

Concerning the WinRE partition, look at the MVP Assistant in the System Configuration page. If things are good, the top pane should have something like this (taken from my system)...

    Operating System:    Microsoft Windows 10 Pro,  Version 22H2,  Build 10.0.19045.2965,  64-bit
                     Build ID:    19041.1.amd64fre.vb_release.191206-1406
                    Installed:    11/23/2020 2:31:16 PM
                  Last Boot:    7/13/2023 7:16:09 PM
                          Boot:    Disk 2  Partition 2
                      WinRE:    Disk 2  Partition 5  (Build 19041)
               BIOS Mode:    UEFI  (Secure Boot Disabled)

The WinRE line tells you the disk and partition of where Windows will find the WinRE.wim. If this line does not appear, then it is best to look at C:\Windows\System32\Recovery to see if the wim is there. What are you seeing?

If a disk and partition is identified, then in the Fixed Drives tab select that disk and partition. Again, from my system the results in the Partition Info tab look like this...

    Disk 2:                 Samsung SSD 960
    Partition 5:           (no file system label)
    Type:                    GPT  Microsoft Recovery  (WinRE)
    GUID:                   {28635cbb-3d24-4f12-baca-95e152c487f2}
    Status:                  Online
    WinRE Version:    19041.1.amd64fre.vb_release.191206-1406
    Offset:                  499,211,304,960
    Drive Type:           Fixed
    File System:         NTFS
    Health Status:       Healthy
    Size:                      854.00 MB Total  /   409.86 MB Remaining
    Device ID:             \\?\Volume{28635cbb-3d24-4f12-baca-95e152c487f2}\

BrunoC,

Got it...

I did not realize I could obtain WinRE.wim via MVP making  a project. 
I obtained WinRE.wim the hard way by doing:

c:\reagentc /info    !   which showed me the WinRE location - as well as using MVP to see details of partition info.
Then did a c:\mountvol, and picked the 1st partition that had no mount point.
Mounted, assigned drive letter, then went into directory structure.
It happened to have the Recovery directory structure containing within it the WinRE.wim
Then used xcopy /h to copy WinRE.win to the test directory I had created.
Then used dism  commands you provided.
My mistake was thinking I would see the directories as a result of the dism advisory command.
I did not realize I should go to to the /mount directory I had created to see... I now understand..

I have it all straight in my mind now and can proceed with confidence.

Thanks