Adding Drivers To Windows Deployment Services Boot Images - Tristan Watkins On IT Infrastructure

6/21/2016
AddingDriverstoWindowsDeploymentServicesBootImagesTristanWatkinsonITInfrastructure
Tristan Watkins on IT Infrastructure

Technical guidance for Microsoft security technologies, Windows, SharePoint, and other generally useful ndings
Adding Drivers to Windows Deployment Services

Boot Images
A while back, I posted an article on building a SharePoint development environment in Hyper-V, which
included a part on automating deployment of the host machine. Although weve now moved to VMware
Workstation, we still use this approach for automating deployment of our standard Windows 7 builds, and
this commentary is generally relevant to any Windows Deployment Services (WDS) deployment.
When I learned WDS and the Windows Automated Installation Kit (which were both quite new in Windows
Server 2008 R2 at the time), I contented myself with getting ~90% of the way to a fully-automated build, as
the additional eort to get from 90 to 100% (mostly re: drivers) wouldnt have paid enough immediate
dividends and we needed to start capitalising on some of the other wins of our new environment. As is often
the case, we never got back to that remaining 10%, but its become more of an issue in recent months, as
weve added a few Dell Latitude E6410 and Lenovo W520 laptops both of which had network drivers that
the Windows 7/Windows Server 2008 R2 boot images didnt recognise. Unfortunately the TechNet guidance
on adding drivers to boot images is unclear (to me anyway), so Im contributing this quick post to attempt to
clarify the problem that we had and the simple step-by-step solution.
A matching network card driver was not found in this image
https://tristanwatkins.com/addingdriverswdsbootimages/
1/27
6/21/2016
A matching network card driver was not found in this image

After preparing our image with current patches and making the state as general-purpose as possible, we ran
SysPrep with Generalise and OOBE, then Shut Down the machine. I always Shut Down rather than rebooting
because I dont want to miss the window in which I need to hit F12 to trigger the PXE boot to capture the
image. If the post-SysPrep boot initiates theres a risk that the SysPrep rearm count will be incremented,
which is rather undesirable.
During capture, I was able to run through the wizard but I was not able to connect to the WDS server during
the imaging process. Not the end of the world I just manually uploaded the image after the process
completed. However, this was my rst indication that all would not be well with the NIC drivers. Note: my
solution below should be repeatable for the capture images as well as the boot images, correcting this issue
as well.
When it came time to deploy the image, we got in to the Windows PE setup splash, but no further than this
error:
WdsClient: An error occurred while starting networking: a matching network card driver was not
found in this image. Please have your Administrator add the network driver for this machine to
the Windows PE image on the Windows Deployment Services server.
An Outdated KB
As you will note in this knowledge base article (which dominates search results for this error), the workaround is fairly detailed and laborious. Nevertheless, I proceeded, with a few caveats.
2/27
6/21/2016
1. I didnt actually get the error that the KB article describes from the Setupapi.app.log, so after a bit of head
scratching, I moved on to step 2, deducing which driver I needed from my extracted NIC driver INF le.
2. peimg /inf=driver.inf mountWindows, from step 3h, just didnt work for me. PEImg couldnt be found.
Eventually I gured out that PEImg refers to an older version of Windows Deployment Services, so this
just didnt work.
At this point I went back to the drawing board and started reviewing the Windows Server 2008 R2 TechNet
documentation, leaving this KB article behind. I was pretty sure there was a less convoluted way of getting
this done anyway. Eventually I found the Add Driver Packages to Boot Image Wizard, as Ill detail in step-bystep instructions below, but now I was getting error code 0xc1420127 in the wizard, as detailed here (with a
good screen shot) and here (with this solution):
1. Clear all your temp directorys.

2. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWIMMountMounted Images and
delete any keys below this.
I think the important step here is the second one, which removes the mounted image that I never unmounted
via imagex /unmount /commit mount; the registry keys align precisely with Imagex /info
Drive:remoteinstallbootx86imagesboot.wim and Imagex /mountrw
D:remoteinstallbootx86imagesboot.wim 2 mountfrom steps 3f/3g/3h:
3/27
6/21/2016
I purposely avoided committing the mount since I couldnt make the PEImg changes, but this inadvertently
caused the Add Driver Packages to Boot Image Wizard 0xc1420127 error.
A much simpler solution

After deleting these keys, I was back on track. If Id never stepped through the outdated KB article I could
have followed these steps below and saved myself (and apparently a few others) much hassle, but for
whatever reason the Add Driver Package command has always eluded me tucked away as it is under the
Drivers node in WDS. I was always distracted by the Add Driver Packages to Image command under the Boot
Images node, as in step 3 below, which gets you nowhere without adding the driver rst. But once you nd
that and step through, its pretty easy.
1. Add Driver Package
4/27
6/21/2016
2. Select driver packages from an .inf le
5/27
6/21/2016
3. On the boot image, select Add Driver Packages to Image:
4. Click Search for Packages:

6/27
6/21/2016
5. While adding the package to the image it will be temporarily dismounted. In order to account for this in
advance you can temporarily disable the image before doing any of this and then re-enable it afterwards.
Repeat this process for other boot/capture images as needed, and make sure the driver matches the
boot/capture image architecture. The install image doesnt need to match the boot image architecture
though.
Ultimately, this all shows o how much better WDS in Windows Server 2008 R2 is than its predecessors,
which were dark arts that few could master. Not so any more, but unfortunately automated deployment is
still confusing when it goes wrong per the number of technologies that all support the same or similar ends,
7/27
6/21/2016
new and old, including WDS, WAIK, MDOP, SCCM, DISM, RIS, ADS and Ive forgotten how many others,
especially when the changing interrelationships between these products over time further obscures the
quality of guidance.
Share this:
Share
Related:
Building a SharePoint 2007/2010 development environment - Part IV: Automated deployment
November 16, 2009
In "Consultancy and Design"
Windows Deployment Services trumps Internet Connection Sharing
August 26, 2009
In "IT Management"
Building a SharePoint 2007/2010 development environment - Part III: Host image build and performance benchmarks
November 6, 2009
In "Consultancy and Design"
Tristan Watkins / May 18, 2011 / Hardware, IT Management, Networking, Windows / Boot, NIC, WAIK, Windows Deployment
Services, Windows Server 2008 R2, WinPE
8/27
6/21/2016
56 thoughts on Adding Drivers to Windows Deployment Services Boot

Images
Lennard M
June 21, 2011 at 5:20 pm
Hey Tristan,
I just setup a new WDS Server and Im just having issues with our Lenovo T420s Display Driver.
Ive done many images for HP and never had any issues with WDS till now.
Im getting Code 12: This device cannot nd enough free resources that it can use and I cannot install the
Intel HD Driver.
Do you have any issues installing Drivers with Win 7 Ent 32 o 64 bit?
Thanks!
LM
Tristan Watkins
June 21, 2011 at 8:58 pm
9/27
6/21/2016
Hmm.. Ive not encountered that, but I actually imaged the factory build after removing a few items of
crapware and patching the system fully current, so it had the display driver in the image. However, Ive
noticed that on rst boot after deploying the SysPrepd image a new display driver is delivered via Windows
Update and we get full graphics after reboot. I doubt thats of any help, but its the experience we had.
Unfortunately I think our scenario is probably dierent since we imaged the factory build.
Lloyd C
April 11, 2012 at 10:03 pm
Hey Lennard M,
I read somewhere that if you add a lot of drivers you need to increase the scratch space from the default
which is 64MB i think. never had to do this but only added a couple of drivers. I think your error sounds like
its run out of room on the scratch disk (it usues a ram disk not sure why its so low???)
Have a google and hope this helps.
LC
Lloyd C
April 11, 2012 at 10:06 pm
here is the website: http://blogs.technet.com/b/mniehaus/archive/2009/06/27/mdt-2010-new-feature7-boot-image-creation-optimized.aspx

10/27
6/21/2016
james mead
October 9, 2012 at 9:59 pm
Did you ever get a resolution to your problem. I am having the same issue after injecting drivers into the
boot capture image.
Rob
October 18, 2011 at 3:43 am
Thanks, very clean write up on this process.
Tristan Watkins
October 18, 2011 at 11:02 pm
Cheers Robert!
Mike
November 10, 2011 at 9:34 am
Thanks for that, saved me a few hours. Ill be sending some cyber-swedish-meatballs your way!
11/27
6/21/2016
Tristan Watkins
November 10, 2011 at 11:50 pm
Make those Cyber-Swedish-Veggie-Meatballs please.
sifo
December 6, 2011 at 12:27 pm
hi
how to nd the NIC Driver ? (.inf le)
for exemple , fot the HP PRO 3300 or other
thanks in advance
Tristan Watkins
You need to download the driver and extract the contents. Typically the installer will ask where you want to
extract them. This KB article explains the things you can do to get at them
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927524
12/27
6/21/2016
Gary Kamp
Thanks soooooo much scracthing my head with this one for hours till I ran into your article.
Shawn Hansen
January 6, 2012 at 6:47 pm
Tristan, you rock! I have spent hours banging my head against the wall trying to nd an easier way to add
drivers to boot images, Thank you for being you!
Tristan Watkins
January 6, 2012 at 11:00 pm
Glad it helped!
Sak
January 16, 2012 at 10:50 am
Mr Tristan
In my WDS windows, theres no Drivers folder, I have got all the folder such as Pending Devices, Muticas and
so on. I am running W2008 R2. Do you have any idea?
13/27
6/21/2016
Tristan Watkins
January 17, 2012 at 12:01 am
Hi Sak,
Im afraid I have no idea. That sounds pretty hosed! Is it still like that after restarting the service or a
reboot? I suppose if you cant get it working, Id either restore it to a state when it worked, or if it never
worked Id consider removing and then re-adding the role to see if that xes it. Make sure to take backups
rst though.
Hope this helps!
Cheers,
T
Sak
January 17, 2012 at 10:01 am
Mr Tristan
Thanks for your prompt respond! I have removed the role per your suggestion but still no Drivers folder.
What version of W2K8 you are running Enterprise? Datacentre? Standdard?
14/27
6/21/2016
Kind Regards
Sak
Tristan Watkins
January 17, 2012 at 11:59 pm
Hi Sak,
Win2K8R2 Standard typically. I guess Id start trawling through event logs if its still failing, or possibly try
to deploy another WDS server to see if you have the same problem.
Cheers,
Tristan
ricon
February 2, 2012 at 5:47 am
Hi Tristan,
Ive been through this for the next 7 days and i cant gure it out how to ad d the drivers until i end up here.
now my questions is im runnign wds in win serv 2008 r2 all good but i dont have that part of addcing driver
in the wds console managment how do i get that? please i really need it hope you know how to get it oh and it
15/27
6/21/2016
isnt in the windows updates.

Regards.
Tristan Watkins
February 2, 2012 at 11:11 pm
Im afraid Im not sure from that description, and Ive never seen that problem, but I suggested some
things to Sak above.
Lukas
February 9, 2012 at 3:59 am
For those with no Drivers node in WDS: this is not available for the WDS version that goes on Windows Server
2003. If you have Server 2008 [R2] and its still not there perhaps you did an in-place upgrade from Server
2003?
ben Edmumds
February 12, 2012 at 7:26 pm
in reply i believe you have to install WAIK for the tab to appear. im installing it now and will report back
16/27
6/21/2016
Bob
March 28, 2012 at 2:03 pm
2008R2 fresh install has the drivers tab, WAIK is totaly seperate. You will nd that adding drivers to x86
Win7 image is possible but not on vista images at all. I have tried now and fond that WDS simple stops
respoinding when even adding single drivers. When this happens you have to use the dism command to
unmount the image located in your appdatalocal
GoOSe_Luv
May 3, 2012 at 8:01 pm
I am trying to capture an image from the new Lenovo x130e and when booting to pci lan I noticed it uses the
Atheros Ethernet driver which none of our current computers use i.e. e6400, e6410 I get an error: No boot
le name received. Any Idea on how to solve this?
Tristan Watkins
May 4, 2012 at 10:41 pm
I may not be understanding the question properly, but is there a reason why you cant just add the driver
package to the boot image, as described above?
Gordon
17/27
6/21/2016
May 7, 2012 at 6:38 pm
Thank you for your write up. Great Job!

You nailed it, kept it clean and easy. I was starting to pull my hair out.
Thanks again,
Gordon
Nazir
June 25, 2012 at 4:15 pm
many thanks
Joe Taw
June 29, 2012 at 3:10 pm
Hi,
Am having an issue where new HP Machines particularly HP 8300 Elite SFF wont pick up dhcp addresses, i
was wondering if you come across this problem before all of the other PCs work for us so we know its not
dhcp thats the issue.
On one other machine the HP 6560b laptop we were able to roll back to the bios and this resolved it i was
18/27
6/21/2016
wondering if its possible to update the intel boot agent if so how?

Thank You for any help
Tristan Watkins
June 29, 2012 at 11:41 pm
So do you get the WdsClient error or do you not even get a DHCP address during PXE boot, thus never
arriving at WinPE?
If you havent added the drivers for the HP 8300 Elite SFF to your boot image (not your install image) then
the boot image (WinPE, not PXE) will be unable to load drivers for the NICs because the drivers dont exist.
Older machines dont have this problem as often because Windows already has their NIC drivers built in.
Apologies if Im stating the obvious (it wasnt obvious to me until I gured this out).
If youre not picking up a DHCP allocation during PXE boot thats a whole dierent story and Id suggest
taking that up with HP (although I would be interested to hear what you nd, if that is the case). Also, if
that is the scenario, can you pick up DHCP addresses once Windows is installed on the machines? And do
any other operating systems work? Just wondering if its something about the NIC itself.
Bill
July 3, 2012 at 4:02 am
Thanks for the tip, worked great. Gotta say though, im glad i have full gig ethernet all around. Was watching
19/27
6/21/2016
my network adapter on the server when doing this and it was making good use of GigE
ScubaSteve78
July 11, 2012 at 6:44 pm
Thanks for the help! Saved me time and further headache
GoOSe_Luv
July 13, 2012 at 1:48 pm
I do not have the Drivers Folder that you described above thats why I cant add the driver to the boot image.
We are using 2008 standard. The only time I have an option to add or import drivers is through the
deployment workbench and so far that has not been working . Is there a way I can get the drivers folder
option?
Tristan Watkins
July 14, 2012 at 12:53 am
Not sure unfortunately. A number of things change between 2008 and 2008 R2, so even if I had an older
system available to try this out, my knowledge of how this used to work is very stale. Im afraid I cant be a
huge amount of help there. :/ This article is really just about 2008 R2.
20/27
6/21/2016
Alan
August 15, 2012 at 12:18 pm
Thanks Tristan nice write-up and much appreciated
Pingback: Adding Drivers to Windows Deployment Services Boot Images Mshiyas Blog
Roman
I suppose that Drivers folder doesnt show up if WDS is installed in mixed mode.
In native mode the Drivers folder exists.
vipin
Thank you it worked
ravi
March 19, 2013 at 7:41 pm
21/27
6/21/2016
i am not get the optiont namd DRIVER you show in rst step
Tristan Watkins
March 26, 2013 at 12:46 am
Hi Ravi,
A few other people have reported that problem in the comments here, although I havent seen it. Its worth
looking through these comments to see if any of them sound right for your deployment.
Cheers,
Tristan
JohnLong
May 21, 2013 at 3:21 am
this is a wonderful and very informative post.
Stephen Wills (@willsie2)

August 8, 2013 at 7:26 am
Great Article, thanks!

22/27
6/21/2016
Terry
August 29, 2013 at 7:53 pm
I was given this website so that I can gure out how to embed the NIC drivers into my boot image on my WDS
server. I see where it says to add driver packs, but when I downloaded the drivers from the internet it came
as a execuable icon. It will not let me unzip it or explore it to nd the .inf le. I even tried the task of nding
the .inf le from the post above.
Tristan Watkins
August 29, 2013 at 11:12 pm
Chances are the executable unpacks the contents somewhere, or maybe even prompts you for a location
when you run it. Try that in a lab to see if you can nd a location where theyre unpacked, and then grab
the les. Failing that, you probably arent the only person facing this specic problem, so do some
searching to see if anyone else has managed to open it up some other way. Without knowing anything
about the exe its hard to give any more helpful advice.
Don
September 17, 2013 at 5:23 pm
Thank you so much!!! Tristan, this saved me serious headache
23/27
6/21/2016
Kevin
I am having an issue with a Lenovo T420 when trying to capture an image. In the past when it would boot to
Windows PE to start the capture image process, I would do shift + f10 to bring up a command prompt and
verify that the machine has an IP in the Windows PE session. If it didnt I would go to the D:\SWTools folder
and browse for the Ethernet drivers and install them. Then I would add the drivers to the correct Capture
Image listed in the Boot Images folder in the WDS console. But for some reason with the T420 even after
running the install of the software, the driver is not installed correctly and I still cant get an IP in the
Windows PE session. Any ideas on that?
Kevin
So I just tried connecting to the WDS server from within the Capture Image Windows PE and it
connected???? Despite saying media disconnected. So unlike my other laptops this one did not show it had
an IP even though it did. Go gure
sameer
August 8, 2014 at 1:35 pm
HI, need your help on this, i have installed wds on 2008 r2 enterprise, also added boot image but after
creating capture image, i am not able to add any drives to same boot image, windows getting freeze. while
24/27
6/21/2016
adding drivers to boot image then i have to delete capture image and then have to delete above reg. then only
i am ble to add drivers to boot image even i tried second system also but still getting same error. please need
your help to x this
Tristan Watkins
August 13, 2014 at 12:30 pm
Hi Sameer, Im afraid I dont have any specic ideas, but the other comments here might help. People have
encountered a few related issues.
Fabian
Have done this on my WDS server here but it doesnt like unsigned x64 drivers using this method. Any
workaround for this?
Tristan Watkins
October 14, 2014 at 10:20 pm
Im not sure about that. Is the issue that they are x64 or unsigned?
Fabian
25/27
6/21/2016
I think it is the fact that Microsoft want everything to be 64 bit as 32 bit drivers arent required to be
signed and can be installed with no issue but if the 64 bit version of the same driver is installed and is not
signed then it will not import them to the driver group.
Tristan Watkins
Yeah, that rings a bell, but Im afraid Im not sure. Id be searching for the answer myself.
Manoj
As is checked there is no driver folder in WDS MMC ???
Tristan Watkins
Its worth reading through the comment above Manoj. One comment from Roman says, I suppose that
Drivers folder doesnt show up if WDS is installed in mixed mode.
In native mode the Drivers folder exists. Worth a go!
26/27
6/21/2016
Kevin
August 17, 2015 at 3:32 pm
Anyone have any luck trying to add drivers for Lenovo Thinkcentre e63z? Im not sure if the drivers are
unsigned, but the installation fails every time. Ive tried multiple sources for the driver, and tried some
generic ones too, but they just keep failing.
Marlboro ejuice
March 19, 2016 at 9:21 pm
Its amazing in favor of me to hwve a web site,

which is good inn favor of my know-how. thanks admin
Tristan Watkins on IT Infrastructure / Proudly powered by WordPress
27/27

Adding Drivers To Windows Deployment Services Boot Images - Tristan Watkins On IT Infrastructure

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Adding Drivers To Windows Deployment Services Boot Images - Tristan Watkins On IT Infrastructure

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

6/21/2016

Tristan Watkins on IT Infrastructure

Adding Drivers to Windows Deployment Services

A matching network card driver was not found in this image

A matching network card driver was not found in this image

1. Clear all your temp directorys.

A much simpler solution

2. Select driver packages from an .inf le

3. On the boot image, select Add Driver Packages to Image:

4. Click Search for Packages:

56 thoughts on Adding Drivers to Windows Deployment Services Boot

here is the website: http://blogs.technet.com/b/mniehaus/archive/2009/06/27/mdt-2010-new-feature7-boot-image-creation-optimized.aspx

Thanks, very clean write up on this process.

Make those Cyber-Swedish-Veggie-Meatballs please.

isnt in the windows updates.

May 7, 2012 at 6:38 pm

Thank you for your write up. Great Job!

wondering if its possible to update the intel boot agent if so how?

Thanks for the help! Saved me time and further headache

Thanks Tristan nice write-up and much appreciated

Thank you it worked

this is a wonderful and very informative post.

Stephen Wills (@willsie2)

Great Article, thanks!

Thank you so much!!! Tristan, this saved me serious headache

October 15, 2014 at 9:25 am

As is checked there is no driver folder in WDS MMC ???

Its amazing in favor of me to hwve a web site,

Tristan Watkins on IT Infrastructure / Proudly powered by WordPress

You might also like