Create a WinPE bootable disk to support Dell hardware (NIC, Mass Storage Injection)

Dell provides the WinPE cab to help administrators deal with the pain associated with finding the right NIC and Mass storage drivers for various systems. Using this cab, you can easily create a WinPE image, and ultimately a boot disk, that is capable of getting any Dell system booted and on the network....steps that are crucial to a successful Operating System Deployment.

Winpe

This section will show you how to create a WinPE wim that is contains all of the Nic and Mass Storage drivers needed to boot any current Dell system

Step 1: Download the cab. For this example, we will use the D:\DellWinPECab\dell-winpe-drivers.cab file.

Step 2: Extract the cab. Use your favorite utility to do so, but keep in mind that we want to preserve the sub-directory structure in the cab. I am going to use the cabarc command from the Windows 2003 Support tools. In my example, I use this command line: cabarc -p x d:\DellWinPECab\dell-winpe-drivers.cab *.* d:\DellWinPECab\

Step 3: Mount your WinPE wim. In this example, our wim file is called c:\temp\winpebootable.wim. To mount this image, assuming an 32bit OS, use this command : c:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\x86\imagex.exe /mountrw c:\temp\winpebootable.wim 1 c:\tempwim

Figure 2: Mount your WinPE wim

Step 4: Now that we have the driver files extracted and the wim mounted we are ready to add our drivers. To add the drivers to WinPE, we would normally use the PeImg.exe file in the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK). The one problem with this is that PeImg.exe won't recurse sub-directories. But we simple command line can fix that (thanks to J. Greg's Brain Corrall). Use this command line to add all of the drivers in our newly expanded folder to the WinPE image: for /R d:\dellWinPECab\winpe_drivers %i in (*.inf) do peimg /inf=%i c:\tempwim\windows\

Figure 3: Add the drivers to WinPE

Step5: Unmount and commit the wim. After the installation of the drivers is complete, it is time to commit the changes to the wim. Again, assuming a 32bit OS, use this command: c:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\x86\imagex.exe /unmount /commit c:\tempwim

Step 6: Success! This should give you a wim capable of booting any Dell supported system, with NIC and Mass Storage drivers. Enjoy!

ConfigMgr

Sometimes you just want to skip the WinPE method of importing drivers, and use that investment you have in ConfigMgr to your advantage! Well, lucky you - here are the step you need to follow in order to do it!

Step 1: Download the cab. For this example, we will use the D:\DellWinPECab\dell-winpe-drivers.cab file.

Step 2: Extract the cab. Use your favorite utility to do so, but keep in mind that we want to preserve the sub-directory structure in the cab. I am going to use the cabarc command from the Windows 2003 Support tools. In my example, I use this command line: cabarc -p x d:\DellWinPECab\dell-winpe-drivers.cab *.* d:\DellWinPECab\

Step 3: Now we can tell ConfigMgr where to grab the drivers. Open the ConfigMgr Console, connect to your favorite Primary site and expand Computer Management - Operating System Deployments - Drivers. Right-click on the Drivers node, and select Import. The Import Drivers Wizard will open.

Step 4: Follow the wizard. Point to the UNC path of the directory we just extracted the cabs to....for example \\servername\d$\DellWinPECab\winpe_drivers.

Figure 4: Extracted the cabs

Step 5: Click Next, and you will be presented with a screen that lists the drivers found in the sub-directory. Also on this screen, you can select a category to assign to the drivers (which is handy for sorting later). Click Next.

Figure 5: ConfigMgr

Step 6: Select any Driver Packages you want to add these WinPE drivers to. Please note that this is not a necessary step if you only want WinPE to use these drivers. Click Next.

Step 7: Here is the screen where you select the boot image you want ConfigMgr to update with your new drivers! This step is crucial, so don't skip it! For our example we are just going to use the normal Boot Image x86 image. Select it and be sure you select the "Update Distribution points when finished"! If you don't update the DPs here, you will need to do it in the console after the import is complete (so you might as well do it now!) Click Next.

Figure 6: Select the boot image

Step 8: Next come the Summary and Progress screens. If everything goes well, the confirmation screen will show you a successful import!

That should do it! At this point you have a fully functioning WinPE boot image that ConfigMgr can use to boot any supported Dell System. This will really get those deployments off to a good start!