HI all,
I wonder if someone would know the answer for this one. It seems I am currently the only one with the ESD compression problem, as the latest reactions on ESD access violation are two years old... ? Or does everyone resigned on converting WINM custom images to ESD?
So in a nutshell:
- Every image done with NTLITE using install.wim is working just fine.
- Every image done with NTLITE using install.esd is not working (though there i an exception mentioned below).
my scenario:
I create images for personal use only for me and my friends. I bought recently the license although I have been using free version of NTLITE for years.
This is how I usually do it:
I download and compile the iso file from https://uupdump.net/ , where i do the first tuning in terms of editing convertConfig.ini and CustomAppsList.txt
After compiling, I install this on Virtualbox / VMWare and before 1st run I do the CRTL+SHIFT+F3, install apps that I need, run sysprep and then capture the image to the WIM file. Then I open the WIM file with NTLITE, do final finetuning (basically remove not-used apps and do fine-tuning of explorer and system), use unattended option and Apply changes so that Wim file gets the NTLCompName.vbs and changes to the registry for setupcomplete.cmd.
Five yeras ago I had a bit different procedure - I extracted whole "uupdump-made-ISO" to a directory and NTLITE took care even for creating my final customized ISO, but I gave up and last 3 or 4 years I keep the same iso, i only update the install.wim file. The reason for that was that many times I got the installation corrupted even when used install.wim or I cound not see the disk drives that I could partition before.
So basically I am using "old" win10 install that IMHO is working fine, always finds disk drives, has correct drivers for NVME and network. From time to time I try using win 11 install, but after couple of tries I usually give up.
One of the main reasons why i use the "old skin for the new ceremony" is that I need to install users profiles on the D drive. (<ProfilesDirectory>D:\Users</ProfilesDirectory>) This saves a lot of time needed for backup and restore when reinstalling, as the data stays on D: and you can wipe C: drive in a jiffy and proceed with superfast installation while you still have the data on D: drive.
But - But - But when using "win 11 installer" , and partitioning disk for C: (system) and D: (data and user profiles), many times i had a big issue, that the drive letters were not assigned correctly - well you cannot assign them manually in the installation process, so , for example C: (system was fine, 1st HDD partition) D: was assigned to USB flash or CD-ROM and finally then E: drive was assigned to the 2nd HDD partition that I wanted to use as D: Data. Therefore directory d:\users was not created (in case of CDROM) or was created on the USB drive!!!! I never encountered this glitch on WIN10 installer, that was always assigning the letters to drives in correct order (C, D for HDD partitions and E for USB/CDROM).
Recently I came to the need of reducing the size of the iso (to get it under 8GB) and therefore I tried to use install.esd but out of 50+ esd compilation, only one (randomly compiled in a series of compilation) works. Unfortunatelly it in not "the perfect /final one", it is just one of random testing compilations. But I cannot find out why this one works and not the others.
I realised that this is the scenario for WIM/ESD:
What I need is to get ESD based iso working on PXE (my home network) and
When using ESD, the there is a fatal error : (in the setuperr.log in) PANTHR Exception (code 0xC0000005: ACCESS_VIOLATION) occurred at 0x00007FFF05B9136B in w:\sources\ImageLib.dll
When using WIM, the installation goes smoothly. I tried to replace the ImageLib.dll with diferrent versions I downloaded form internet, but no success.
Converting the ESD to WIM and back to ESD is not helping too. The ESD image IMHO is not corupted, as I can easily extract it (for example open in 7ZIP and copy everyhing from the ESD file to a directory...) If ESD if created and then I play with it in terms export-to-wim-export to ESD again, it always crashes at the same prercentage... (between 1-6 percent)
If I create another build, and convert to ESD, then it crashes again at the same exact percentage no matter if I play around with the WIM-export-esd-export.....
Converting the WIM to ESO by other tools like POWERISO (usong DISM) is not helping either BUT i noticed that this changes the percentage of coppied files, for ex, orriginally ESD breaks at 1% of copying, then I take original WIM and convert it not with NTLITE but with POWERISO and then it crashes at 5 % no matter what I do with the same access violation error.
But last week I made a small advancement and would like to share it, as it might help to pinpoint the underlaying issue.
I took working WIM, (tried convert to ESD, as expected, got the access violation error at 1percent of copying), and I removed WINRE.WIM from the install.WIM image. Then I converted the install wim (500Mb smaller because of deleting the winre) to install ESD, injected the esd to ISO and ..... and the instalaltion passed on all three platforms (virtual, PXE, USB-Ventoy)
Last 7 days I am banging my head against the wall trying to find out where the issue is, but obviously I am not good enough at analysing the errors.
If someone with more advanced skills than I would like to check if out, I am enclosing:
2 outputs from UNsuccesfull installation (panther directories including the minidump files)
the file panther01percent.zip is from installation done by NTLITE ESD conversion and
the file panther05percent.zip is from installation where ESD was converted by POWERISO (using DISM).
Also I am enclosing links for two custom ISO files (one working and one NOT working) for comparison
MOD NOTE: Removed download link to private ISO (per forum rules).
[redacted]
both ISOs contains two editions, CLEAN and FULL, where
Clean is just a win11 installation with Clink https://chrisant996.github.io/clink/ and couple of cosmetic modification and
Full contains preinstalled office 365 (+3GB), Total commander ultime prime (+1GB), C++ redist, and many cosmetic modifications (new default cursors, WindHawk etc...)
No matter what edition you install, w11-test.iso always works and w11-test-5procent.iso always fail at 5%
W11-test.iso - working (file WINRE.WIM was deleted from image) and
W11-test-5procent.iso Not-working, installation crashes at 5 percent with 0xC0000005
The ISOs are available to download untill 20.3.2025, then according to the terms of this service the files are erased after 2 weeks, but if needed, i will re-upload them again afer.
Both ISOs are working fine on VirtualBox, but PXE and USB-Ventoy can be done only with w11-test.iso as w11-test-5procent.iso crashes at 5percent.
Thank you all in advance for help or pointing me the right direction. I think that tackling this would help a lot of people here.
BREGS
I wonder if someone would know the answer for this one. It seems I am currently the only one with the ESD compression problem, as the latest reactions on ESD access violation are two years old... ? Or does everyone resigned on converting WINM custom images to ESD?
So in a nutshell:
- Every image done with NTLITE using install.wim is working just fine.
- Every image done with NTLITE using install.esd is not working (though there i an exception mentioned below).
my scenario:
I create images for personal use only for me and my friends. I bought recently the license although I have been using free version of NTLITE for years.
This is how I usually do it:
I download and compile the iso file from https://uupdump.net/ , where i do the first tuning in terms of editing convertConfig.ini and CustomAppsList.txt
After compiling, I install this on Virtualbox / VMWare and before 1st run I do the CRTL+SHIFT+F3, install apps that I need, run sysprep and then capture the image to the WIM file. Then I open the WIM file with NTLITE, do final finetuning (basically remove not-used apps and do fine-tuning of explorer and system), use unattended option and Apply changes so that Wim file gets the NTLCompName.vbs and changes to the registry for setupcomplete.cmd.
Five yeras ago I had a bit different procedure - I extracted whole "uupdump-made-ISO" to a directory and NTLITE took care even for creating my final customized ISO, but I gave up and last 3 or 4 years I keep the same iso, i only update the install.wim file. The reason for that was that many times I got the installation corrupted even when used install.wim or I cound not see the disk drives that I could partition before.
So basically I am using "old" win10 install that IMHO is working fine, always finds disk drives, has correct drivers for NVME and network. From time to time I try using win 11 install, but after couple of tries I usually give up.
One of the main reasons why i use the "old skin for the new ceremony" is that I need to install users profiles on the D drive. (<ProfilesDirectory>D:\Users</ProfilesDirectory>) This saves a lot of time needed for backup and restore when reinstalling, as the data stays on D: and you can wipe C: drive in a jiffy and proceed with superfast installation while you still have the data on D: drive.
But - But - But when using "win 11 installer" , and partitioning disk for C: (system) and D: (data and user profiles), many times i had a big issue, that the drive letters were not assigned correctly - well you cannot assign them manually in the installation process, so , for example C: (system was fine, 1st HDD partition) D: was assigned to USB flash or CD-ROM and finally then E: drive was assigned to the 2nd HDD partition that I wanted to use as D: Data. Therefore directory d:\users was not created (in case of CDROM) or was created on the USB drive!!!! I never encountered this glitch on WIN10 installer, that was always assigning the letters to drives in correct order (C, D for HDD partitions and E for USB/CDROM).
Recently I came to the need of reducing the size of the iso (to get it under 8GB) and therefore I tried to use install.esd but out of 50+ esd compilation, only one (randomly compiled in a series of compilation) works. Unfortunatelly it in not "the perfect /final one", it is just one of random testing compilations. But I cannot find out why this one works and not the others.
I realised that this is the scenario for WIM/ESD:
| VirtualBox/VmWare | PXE boot | USB (ventoy) | |
| WIM | always works | always works | always works |
| ESD | usually works | almost never works | almost never works |
What I need is to get ESD based iso working on PXE (my home network) and
When using ESD, the there is a fatal error : (in the setuperr.log in) PANTHR Exception (code 0xC0000005: ACCESS_VIOLATION) occurred at 0x00007FFF05B9136B in w:\sources\ImageLib.dll
When using WIM, the installation goes smoothly. I tried to replace the ImageLib.dll with diferrent versions I downloaded form internet, but no success.
Converting the ESD to WIM and back to ESD is not helping too. The ESD image IMHO is not corupted, as I can easily extract it (for example open in 7ZIP and copy everyhing from the ESD file to a directory...) If ESD if created and then I play with it in terms export-to-wim-export to ESD again, it always crashes at the same prercentage... (between 1-6 percent)
If I create another build, and convert to ESD, then it crashes again at the same exact percentage no matter if I play around with the WIM-export-esd-export.....
Converting the WIM to ESO by other tools like POWERISO (usong DISM) is not helping either BUT i noticed that this changes the percentage of coppied files, for ex, orriginally ESD breaks at 1% of copying, then I take original WIM and convert it not with NTLITE but with POWERISO and then it crashes at 5 % no matter what I do with the same access violation error.
But last week I made a small advancement and would like to share it, as it might help to pinpoint the underlaying issue.
I took working WIM, (tried convert to ESD, as expected, got the access violation error at 1percent of copying), and I removed WINRE.WIM from the install.WIM image. Then I converted the install wim (500Mb smaller because of deleting the winre) to install ESD, injected the esd to ISO and ..... and the instalaltion passed on all three platforms (virtual, PXE, USB-Ventoy)
Last 7 days I am banging my head against the wall trying to find out where the issue is, but obviously I am not good enough at analysing the errors.
If someone with more advanced skills than I would like to check if out, I am enclosing:
2 outputs from UNsuccesfull installation (panther directories including the minidump files)
the file panther01percent.zip is from installation done by NTLITE ESD conversion and
the file panther05percent.zip is from installation where ESD was converted by POWERISO (using DISM).
Also I am enclosing links for two custom ISO files (one working and one NOT working) for comparison
MOD NOTE: Removed download link to private ISO (per forum rules).
[redacted]
both ISOs contains two editions, CLEAN and FULL, where
Clean is just a win11 installation with Clink https://chrisant996.github.io/clink/ and couple of cosmetic modification and
Full contains preinstalled office 365 (+3GB), Total commander ultime prime (+1GB), C++ redist, and many cosmetic modifications (new default cursors, WindHawk etc...)
No matter what edition you install, w11-test.iso always works and w11-test-5procent.iso always fail at 5%
W11-test.iso - working (file WINRE.WIM was deleted from image) and
W11-test-5procent.iso Not-working, installation crashes at 5 percent with 0xC0000005
The ISOs are available to download untill 20.3.2025, then according to the terms of this service the files are erased after 2 weeks, but if needed, i will re-upload them again afer.
Both ISOs are working fine on VirtualBox, but PXE and USB-Ventoy can be done only with w11-test.iso as w11-test-5procent.iso crashes at 5percent.
Thank you all in advance for help or pointing me the right direction. I think that tackling this would help a lot of people here.
BREGS
Last edited by a moderator:
