Mount-wim failed with errorlevel 1243

[sket]

Hello,

I'm currently trying to build a bootable USB of OSForensics. I received this error and unsure why. I've removed the ADK application and add-on multiple times. I did research and it mentioned I'm missing a certain file in WinPE. Anyone able to help? Thank you!

[JeffS]

Hello,

Sorry to hear you are experiencing problems. Reading your post, I'm not certain how to interpret, "I've removed the ADK application and add-on multiple times." You must have the correct ADK and Windows PE add-on installed for the particular machine you are attempting the build on. And they have to be installed "in order". Meaning, the WinPE add-on has to be installed after the ADK, matching version. So my first thoughts are possibly that there is an incomplete/mismatched ADK + WinPE add-on install or some unforeseen issue with the installation of these two things. - Please confirm that winpe.wim exists under ...\Windows Preinstallation Environment\amd64\en-us\ ...(or x86/arm64, whichever you selected in the wizard)

Another possibility is a stale/dirty mount from a previous failed attempt. If a prior WinPE Builder run got interrupted or errored out mid-mount, Windows can leave the WIM flagged as "already mounted," so every subsequent attempt fails at the same step. The "errorlevel" code in your screenshot is cutoff, but likely means DISM couldn't mount the WinPE source WIM, which woudl likely indicate this is the issue. Meaning, a previous build attempt may have left the image mounted (this happens if a build fails partway through). You can try and open an elevated Command Prompt and run: dism /cleanup-wim ...then reboot and try the build again. Also clear out the contents of your Temp directory first and make sure it's a folder on the root of a drive (e.g. D:\Temp), since WinPE Builder generally works best there rather than in a deeply nested path.

The bootable build can be "finicky" at times depending on either the machine, or the physical drive that it is being written to. Do you have a different machine you can try the process on? I hear from users who have reported similar/same problems yet reported that simply changing to a different system worked. See this thread as an example
https://forums.passmark.com/burninte...nt-winpe-image

I have also seen times where switching the USB drive file format (in the final step), from NTFS to FAT32 (or vice versa) has allowed the installation to complete as intended.

Ultimately, if any of the above tips don't resolve the issue for you, please reach out to us directly at help@passmark.com with your contact info and we can dive into the issue a bit deeper and hopefully get this resolved quickly for you.