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Append a Volume Image to an Existing Image Using DISM

Applies To: Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2

The Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) tool is a command-line tool that enables the creation of Windows® image (.wim) files for deployment in a manufacturing or corporate IT environment. The /Append-Image option appends a volume image to an existing .wim file allowing you to store many customized Windows images in a fraction of the space. When you combine two or more Windows image files into a single .wim, any files that are duplicated between the images are only stored once.

Multiple Windows Images in a .wim file

Before you can append data to an image, you must have the following:

  • A technician computer running Windows® 8 or a technician computer with the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (Windows ADK) tools installed on it.

  • A Windows image (.wim) file. For more information about how to capture an image using DISM, see Capture Images of Hard Disk Partitions Using DISM.

To append a volume image to an existing image

  1. Open a command prompt with administrator privileges. If you are using a version of Windows other than Windows 8, navigate to the DISM directory.

  2. Append a volume image to an existing image. For example, you can append an image of the D drive to an existing image called my-windows-partition.wim.

    Dism /Append-Image /ImageFile:c:\my-windows-partition.wim /CaptureDir:D:\ /Name:Drive-D
    

Next Steps

  • You can apply the image by referring to it by image number or image name, for example:

    Dism /apply-image /imagefile:install.wim /name:Drive-D /ApplyDir:D:\
    
  • You can extract the image into a separate file by using the /Export-Image option. For example:

    Dism /Export-Image /SourceImageFile:install.wim /SourceName:Drive-D /DestinationImageFile:DriveD.wim
    

For more information, see DISM Image Management Command-Line Options.

See Also

Tasks

Capture Images of Hard Disk Partitions Using DISM

Reference

DISM Image Management Command-Line Options