MDT 2010: question about overall function

You have the basics down for MDT 2010 and the documentation is a bit confusing at times.  I'll try to clarify with some bullet points below.

1. When you add drivers you should make sure to keep them in separate folders to keep them straight.  It might seem overkill now when you only have 1 or 2 models of computers to deploy to but later you will thank me.  Also Dell and other manufacturers have driver packs which cover many models.  Link below to Dell's driver packs.

2. When you update a deployment share it only cares about Mass Storage and NIC drivers as these are the drivers WinPE needs to get you started so you will only have to update you deployment share when you add need mass storage or NIC drivers.

3. WinPE Drivers - Grab the WinPE 3.0 drivers from dell (link below) and load them into their own folder in the deployment workbench.  Then expand Adv Configuration/Selection Profiles.  Create a new selection profile called "WinPE Drivers" and check the box for your WinPE folder.  Now go to the properties of you distribution share and click on "Windows PE x86 Components" tab.  Tick off "Include all drivers from the selection profile" and select "WinPE Drivers" from the dropdown.  Repeat this on the WinPE x64 Components tab.  Now you only have to update the distribution share if you update components or WinPE drivers.

4. Task Sequences - You can see the how the deployment is going to proceed by reviewing  your task sequences (RC a task sequence, properties, Task Sequence tab).  A high level overview is:
1. Boot the computer to WinPE via PXE or from ISO.
2. System attaches to distribution share and runs \\server\distributionshare\scripts\litetouch.vbs which starts the wizard.
3. You answer questions which creates an answer file
4. HDD is re-partitioned and formatted
5. OS files are copied to the system and the system restarts
6. Normal OS unattended setup runs using the answer file created in step 3
7, After OS installation system restarts and re-connects to distribution share to run litetouch.vbs and continue with task sequence including installing applications, running windows update (WinUpd step is disabled by default), etc...

http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/Dell+Business+Client+Operating+System+Deployment+-+The+.CAB+Files

Thanks for the clarification and awesome link to the CAB files mcsween. I will step through some of this and post back if anything comes up.

Okay, so the 32-bit capture worked great. Now I've got a Windows 7 64-bit loaded with Windows Virtual PC for some legacy software we need to run. I went through the capture process for the 64-bit version and I see a much larger .wim for the x64 capture, but when I reboot the computer I get this error: http://i.imgur.com/fn42d.jpg 

It acts like the system is trying to finish an install and not like it was just captured. I've been trying to follow along with instructions here: http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Deploying-Windows-7-Part10.html

Another issue I have is that my CustomSettings.ini file don't have nearly as much information as the directions above indicate. I'm sure I'm missing something though.

Thank you in advance.

A lot of settings have to be added to the customsettings.ini file manually.  Download the print ready documentation from the following link and there is a customsettings.ini reference in there.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?familyid=3bd8561f-77ac-4400-a0c1-fe871c461a89&displaylang=en

I just skimmed the article but it looks like they have you deploy and capture the image all in one task sequence.  This doesn't allow for customization of the image beyond what you can do with MDT.

The steps I use to create my target image are:
1. Install Windows 7 on one computer either via MDT or from the DVD (or however)
2. Install all patches, standard software (MS Office, Flash, Java, Adobe Reader, XP Mode, etc...) to get it just the way you want it
3. Run Sysprep.exe /oobe /generalize /audit from an elevated command prompt (computer will restart in audit mode)  You MUST be in audit mode to capture your image... http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd744263(WS.10).aspx
4. Create a new Task Sequence in MDT 2010 using the Standard Capture template
5. At the Win7 machine run \\Servername\DeploymentShare$\Scripts\Litetouch.vbs
6. Choose the capture task sequence you created in step 4 and let it do its business. You will find your image in the captures folder once complete.

The capture task sequence will reboot the computer to WinPE.  Make sure you boot to x86 winPE if running x86 Windows and x64 winPE with x64 Windows.  Also, if using PXE to boot make sure you don't miss the prompt on the restart because if regular windows starts booting you will have to start over on step 3 as the out of box experience will run.  If you have to start over just delete the _smstasksequence and MININT folders from the root of C:\ first.  This is true if you need to start over on any task sequence, not just the capture.

To Deploy this image...
1. Add a new operating system and choose your image in the captures folder.  It will ask  you for files (I think source files or something), when it does, just point it to the Windows 7 DVD.
2. Create your task sequence using this new OS as the OS to deploy.
3. Boot to WinPE, etc, etc, etc...

You may have issues loading the new image into MDT as an OS or weird errors when setup runs at deployment.  If you do just load the OS from the DVD like you did before then rename you captured image to install.wim and replace the one in the operating systems folder with yours.

I think I've provided enough information for the Author to give me the points.  If they have additional questions they are free to post here and I will answer.

This question has been classified as abandoned and is closed as part of the Cleanup Program. See the recommendation for more details.