What should I do with usmt.ppkg and .WIM files?

[Helsinki_Phil]

I hate asking techies questions that are probably “duh”, so please forgive me, but I’m doing some clean-up, and found two instances of the usmt.ppkg and WIM / WIM2 files - see attached, and I would like to remove them from the internal HD if possible (space huggers!).

I have a couple of TB external HDs which have a bunch of back-up files on it - could I just move them to that and save them for a rainy day, or do they have to stay in situ? I couldn’t really find any satisfactory answers on Ma Google.

Any guidance greatly appreciated.

NordicWalker62

[Bruce]

.WIM are image files, probably created from some sort of backup software.
they can be mounted like a CD and files accessed.
but yours are years old, I’d delete them, but you should be backing up with some other process aren’t you?

the USMT files - the one in OneDrive can be deleted but the other is in your Recovery folder so would be needed if you ever go down that path - factory resetting the PC back to OEM settings. but that would be an old version of Windows, and not used for Windows repair, so really, you could delete that too.

[Bruce]

@Helsinki Phil - do you still need help?

[Bruce]

closing thread