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Steve AveryFlag for United States of America

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Changing network drivers on a Windows Image (WIM) file

Dear expert,

I always 'create' new computers using Windows Deployment Services.  The WIM file created on our WDS was created by someone who no longer works for the company.

Our current WIM file is for a Dell Latitude E6430; however, now we are purchasing the Dell Latitude E6440, since the E6430 is no longer available from Dell.

When I tried to deploy the E6430 WIM file onto an E6440, I receive the following error message: ... a matching network card driver was not found in this image ...

.. and therefore, I can't image the E6440 unless I modify the WIM that exists on our WDS.

Question:  How do I go about modifying the E6430 WIM file on our WDS to match the network card on the E6440? ... and thus create a new WIM that I load onto the new E6440s we are purchasing?

Thanks,
sla0610
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Rob_Buk

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Avatar of Lee W, MVP
What version of Windows Server is WDS running from.  Injecting drivers into a boot image for 2008 and 2003 can't be easily done without extracting and modifying the WIM with DISM, but in 2008 R2 and later, you can directly load the drivers into WDS and apply them to the boot image.
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Lee W,
My WDS is a Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise, SP1.


rob_buk,
I will download Dell's driver package for the E6440 laptops and follow your instructions.  It's late Friday, so I'll do this over the weekend and Monday.


Thanks,
sla0610
rob_buk,

I downloaded the E6440 Win7 Driver Cab.  Is that the correct driver pack I should have downloaded?


sla0610
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Rob_Buk

Yes, if you extract that you should see it contains different folders for each subsystem and within those the .inf files that are the drivers themselves.
rob_buk,

I have extracted the CAB file and as I drilled down to the sub-folders, here is what I found ...

<extracted-folder-name>\E6440\win7\x64\network

Under the 'network' folder, I found the following 3 folders:

1. '0CY67_A00-00'
2. '72FNC_A00-00'
3. 'WPPGM_A00-00'

Each of these 3 folders contain a '.inf' file.  Question:  Which folder do I choose?


Thanks,
sla0610
Each one is for a slightly different build of the laptop, I would import all of them and cover all your bases.
rob_buk,

I got busy over the last 2 days.  Please give me until next week in order to import the files.  I may be contacting you, if I run into trouble.  Your help/support is very much appreciated.


sla0610
rob_buk,

Thanks for the info.  I was able to add the network drivers, just like you described in your first reply back on Feb 21st.  Unfortunately, it still didn't work.  I have to check with one of our corporate admins to see where the network drivers exist on our WDS at our plant.

sla0610