If you're facing DISM error 87, don’t worry. In this guide, we’ll walk you through six reliable solutions to fix the error safely without losing any data.
DISM, short for Deployment Image Service and Management, is a built-in Windows utility first introduced in Windows 7 and Windows Server R2. It allows users to service Windows installation images, whether applied to an active system, stored in a directory, or contained within a WIM file.
This tool can be accessed via the Command Prompt or Windows PowerShell and is commonly used to update system files or repair a corrupted Windows image. However, when executing DISM commands, users may sometimes encounter error code 87 or other related errors, such as DISM error 50, error 2, error 3, or error 1639, preventing the operation from proceeding.
✍ Several factors may contribute to DISM error 87 and similar issues in Windows 11, 10, 8, or 7:
♫ Incorrect command syntax: A common cause of DISM error 87 is improper command formatting. Users often forget to insert a space before the slash ("/") when entering commands, leading to execution failure.
♫ Lack of elevated privileges: Running the DISM command in a standard Command Prompt window instead of an elevated one can also trigger error 87. Administrative privileges are required for DISM operations to execute successfully.
♫ Incompatible DISM version: Using an outdated or incorrect DISM version when servicing a Windows 10 image may result in error 87. Ensuring the correct DISM version is used is crucial to avoid compatibility issues.
Understanding the root causes of the DISM restorehealth error 87 is the first step. The next step is finding the right solutions to fix DISM error 87 efficiently.
In the next section, we will discuss possible remedies to the DISM error 87. If you're having the same issue, try these solutions.
One of the most common reasons for DISM error 87 is improper command formatting. If the command is entered without a space before each slash ("/"), the system will fail to execute it correctly. For example, using DISM/online/cleanup-image/checkhealth instead of the correct format will result in an error.
To resolve this issue, ensure that you type the command with spaces before each slash, as shown below:
DISM /Online /Cleanup-image /Scanhealth
DISM /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth
After executing the correctly formatted command, check if the issue persists.
An outdated Windows version can also trigger DISM error 87. To resolve this, ensure your system is running the latest updates by following these steps:
Step 1. Press Windows + I to open Settings.
Step 2. Select Update & Security.
Step 3. Navigate to the Windows Update tab and click Check for Updates.
Step 4. If updates are available, click Download and Install. If your system is already up to date, a message confirming the latest version is installed will appear.
Step 5. Once the update is complete, restart your computer.
Step 6. After rebooting, open Command Prompt as Administrator and run the DISM command again. If outdated system files were causing the issue, the error should no longer appear.
Corrupted system files can also lead to DISM error 87 in Windows 11, 10, 8, and 7. To resolve this, use the built-in System File Checker (SFC) tool to scan and repair damaged files. Follow these steps:
Step 1. Type Command Prompt in the Windows search bar.
Step 2. Right-click on it and select Run as administrator.
Step 3. In the Command Prompt window, type the following command and press Enter:
sfc /scannow
Step 4. Wait for the process to complete. Do not close the window until the verification reaches 100%.
Step 5. Once the scan finishes, any corrupted files found will be repaired. After that, open Command Prompt as Administrator again and reattempt the DISM command to check if the issue is resolved.
If other methods fail, using System Restore can effectively resolve DISM error 87. However, this process will roll back your system to a previous state, which may require reinstalling certain applications. Follow these steps to proceed:
Step 1. Type System Restore in the Windows search bar and select the matching result.
Step 2. A message will appear, informing you that recently installed programs may be removed. Click Next to continue.
Step 3. Select a restore point from the available list and click Next.
Step 4. Click Finish to start the system restoration process.
Step 5. Once the restore is complete, restart your computer and check if the DISM error 87 is resolved.
If standard fixes don’t resolve DISM error 87 in Windows 11/10, using a reliable third-party tool can be an effective alternative. AOMEI Partition Assistant is a powerful disk management and repair utility that helps fix system errors, including those that affect Windows recovery operations.
AOMEI Partition Assistant includes a "Check Partition" and "Rebuild MBR" feature, which can address corruption in system partitions and resolve boot-related issues that may be causing DISM to fail.
Step 1. Open this tool, right-click the partition that you want to check, select Advanced, then select “Check Partition”.
Step 2. Select the way of checking errors to perform. As you can see from the following screenshot, there are three choices, simply choose the last one “Check whether there is a bad sector on the partition”. And click OK to go to the next step.
Step 3. Click the Start button to check.
Step 1. Right-click the disk which need to be repaired and select “Rebuild MBR” in the pop-up window.
Step 2. In the next window, set the type of MBR for the current OS. (Choose a proper MBR type according to your operating system.) Then, click “OK” to continue.
Step 3. After that, click “Apply” on the toolbar to commit Rebuild MBR operation.
If none of the previous methods resolve the DISM cleanup-image option is unknown error, the final solution is to reinstall Windows. This process can eliminate persistent system issues, but it will erase all data on your system drive.
Before proceeding, ensure that all important files are backed up to an external drive or cloud storage. Once your data is safely backed up, proceed with reinstalling Windows to restore system functionality and eliminate the error.
In conclusion, this article has explained what DISM is and highlighted the potential causes of DISM error 87. Additionally, we’ve provided six effective solutions to help resolve this issue on Windows 7, 8, 10, and 11. Among all these fixes, AOMEI Partition Assistant stands out for its powerful features in fixing such PC problems. Besides, it can also help solve some other issues including “cloned SSD won’t boot”, “Windows Explorer Quick Access missing”, “C drive is full”, etc.