Windows 10 Creating ISO file out of an ESD image -> too big to fit inside DVD, if converted to WIM; install error 0xc0000225, if left unchanged in ESD format!

  • Thread starter Thread starter The Spirit of Morpheus
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The Spirit of Morpheus

Hello,


I have downloaded the following file directly from Microsoft:


17763.379.190312-0539.rs5_release_svc_refresh_CLIENTBUSINESS_VOL_x64FRE_de-de.esd (3.3 GB in size)


It contains almost all Windows 10 editions in ESD image format, Build 17763.379 stable.


Then I wanted to create an ISO image out of it, in order to make a Win10 Enterprise installation DVD. I used the most actual version of NTLite to accomplish that, which also supports ESD decrypting & converting. First, I removed all W10 editions except "Windows 10 Enterprise" - so, only the following images were left inside the parent ESD image in the end:


1. Windows Setup Media

2. Microsoft Windows PE (x64)

3. Microsoft Windows Setup (x64)

4. Windows 10 Enterprise


By doing this, I could shrink the size of the original ESD image by approx. 140MB to 3.16GB.


Next, I had to convert the (files inside the) ESD image to WIM format, otherwise I could not create an ISO image out of it - NTLite told me, it's an "isolated image" despite all necessary files besides "install.wim" & "boot.wim" were also included in the ESD image (Windows Setup Media, WinPE, Windows Setup).


So, I converted all 4 entities listed above to WIM format - which naturally increased their size. As a result of the converting process, a folder was created with the same name as the original ESD file, right beneath it and 4.40 GB in size. After the conversion was done, "install.wim" ("Windows 10 Enterprise") and "boot.wim" ("Microsoft Windows Setup (x64)") showed up on NTLite's list as well as the aforementioned folder, that was newly created - both WIM files were linked to this folder. I tried to apply "Recompress" to both WIM files, but that process did not change their size in any way! "install.wim" remained 3.80GB in size and "boot.wim" 348MB.


Finally, the "Create ISO image" option showed up on NTLite as I selected the folder linking both WIM files in NTLites's list. NTLite asked me to specify a destination folder and give a filename, before starting to create the ISO image.


The resulting ISO image was 4.41GB in size (despite removing all obsolete W10 editions and trying to recompress the WIM images) and as such, it didn't fit into a DVD media (which supports 4.37 or 4.38GB max.) - I noticed that only, once the DVD burner returned an error message, stating the image was too big in size...


So, I tried a workaround by re-converting "install.wim" back to ESD format - this wasn't possible for "boot.wim" though... only install.wim. The resulting install.esd file was almost a Gigabyte smaller than install.wim. Again, after re-conversion, I created an ISO image and this time the image size fit in and I could successfully burn it onto a DVD.


Immediately afterwards, I tested the new install media (booting DVD in UEFI mode directly from BIOS, SecureBoot disabled) and a few seconds after seeing the Windows icon, an error message showed up:


0xc0000225 ("file system32\boot\winload.efi could not be loaded, is missing or corrupt" - something like that)


I'm sure, it must have something to do with the ESD format - I'm pretty certain, this error would not occur with WIM format ("install.wim"), because I inspected install.esd by mounting it, and it *does* contain winload.efi!


But otherwise, the image size doesn't fit into a DVD - so, I don't know what to do now...


Looking forward for help!


TSOM

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