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