DISM Error 0x800f081f - The Source Files Could Not Be Found

Fix: DISM Error 0x800f081f – The Source Files Could Not Be Found

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This article will discuss one such issue that many Windows 10 users faced recently. When you executed DISM‘s restore health command (Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth), the following error message occurred:

DISM Error 0x800f081f - The Source Files Could Not Be Found
Error: 0x800f081f; The source files could not be found.

Here are some reasons why DISM error 0x800f081f may appear:

  • You have specified a wrong Windows Image (install.wim) file as the repair source when using this command: “DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source“
  • DISM tool cannot find online (in WSUS or Windows Update) the files needed to perform the repair, when using this command: “DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth“
  • The install.esd or install.wim file, that you ‘re using as a repair source, contains multiple install.wim files. (DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source)

If you can’t repair your Windows 10 system image running DISM due to error “0x800f081f: The source files could not be found“, this tutorial may help you.

How To Solve DISM Error 0x800f081f: The Source Files Could Not Be Found On Windows 10

Method 1. Using Windows 10 ISO Disc Image

If you have Windows 10 installation media such as ISO file, I highly recommend you that using this method which can be used to fix “DISM Error 0x800f081f: The Source Files Could Not Be Found” problem very easily. To do that, follow these steps below:

Step 1. Press Windows Key + E to open File Explorer. Then locate Windows 10 ISO file and right-click on it and choose Mount. This will mount the disc image to your Windows with a temporary drive letter.

The Source Files Could Not Be Found
Step 2. Then, open Command Prompt Administrator in Windows 10 by pressing Windows Key + X and click Command Prompt (Admin). Now you type following commands below and tap Enter after each:

diskpart
list volume
exit

Step 3. After executing these commands, you have to identify correct drive letter on which Windows 10 ISO file is mounted. Next, you execute this final command:

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /source:WIM:F:\Sources\Install.wim:1 /LimitAccess

Note: Replace F with correct system drive letter in your case.

Fix: DISM Error 0x800f081f - The Source Files Could Not Be Found - 2

This will redirect DISM to mounted Windows 10 ISO file. So you can try to run DISM command Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth and the problem has resolved.

Method 2. Clean Up Image Components

The second method to tackle this problem is to clean up image components. To do that, you can run another DISM command:

Step 1. Open Administrative Command Prompt by pressing Windows Key + X and select Command Prompt (Admin).
Step 2. When Command Prompt window opens, type the following command and press Enter:

Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup

Fix: DISM Error 0x800f081f - The Source Files Could Not Be Found - 3

Step 3. Wait until the command is finished, you can retry running Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth command.

That’s about it.  If you want to copy this post on your blog, please write source and link to Windows Free Apps. Thank you.