Boot.wim issues

[tmcgraw]

I am new to WDS so excuse my ignorance if I am missing something simple. I have been stuck for 3 days working on creating a boot.wim

If i go into my WDS server and go into Boot Images and right click - add new boot image - browse to a boot.wim from a Windows 7 Enterprise 32bit, I can add the wim but when I refresh the server it will disappear. If I actually get a client machine to PXE boot and chose the new boot option, I will get the no driver is found for the network card. I have mounted and added all the needed drivers for my company's hardware. Once I replace the boot.wim I will either get an error that it is not a valid boot image or an error stating that the wim is missing required WDS Client binaries. I am stumped! I have tried and retried this many times and keep getting the same outcome.

 

I am using the boot.wim from the windows installation disc

I update drivers so it will PXE boot with my hardware

I try to replace boot image and it errors out

 

What am I missing?

[winoutreach5]

To start, there is a great wiki on TechNet that describes, in detail, the process of adding a boot image to a WDS server. If you have other Windows 7 Enterprise installation media around, it might be a good idea to try and import the boot.WIM file from an alternate source as it is possible the disc you are currently using is scratched or damaged. Also, when looking for a solution to your problem, I came across this post from the TechNet forums site in which the poster had a very similar issue to the one you are currently experiencing. There are several suggestions in the thread which ultimately helped resolve his issue; it might be worth it to check it out.

 

Another thought that you might be interested in is to check out the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) because it acts as a common console for all of your deployments.

 

First off, it is entirely free and can deploy images via USB drives and DVD; it can even integrate with WDS for network deployments. In addition to the above, MDT can also manage multiple images, drivers, packages and software for nearly any Windows Operating system deployment including Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 2012.

 

By using MDT in tandem with WDS you will be able to keep a thin image, which could be the base install.wim from the OS DVD. You can create a new standard client task sequence for the newly captured image of your reference machine and you can add all your necessary settings such as domainjoin, systemlocale, time zone, etc. You can then add all necessary drivers specific to each hardware configuration and MDT will install the proper drivers based on PnP calls. Applications can be installed as post installation tasks, so when a new version of an application or driver is released it can be changed in MDT easily. There is no need to refresh the image.

 

Finally, you can integrate it with Windows Update or WSUS to make sure the deployment is fully updated; alternatively, you can put the updates into MDT as packages to be installed during deployment.

 

To become more familiar with MDT you might want to check out the following videos from the Springboard Series page on TechNet:

 

· Deployment Day Session 1: Introduction to MDT 2012

· Deployment Day Session 2: MDT 2012 Advanced

 

Hope this helps and keep us posted on your progress!

 

Jessica
Windows Outreach Team – IT Pro

[tmcgraw]

Thank you for your response. I have since started to use MDT in conjunction with WDS. This has made my life a lot easier and seems to be the best solution for what I am trying to accomplish and what my company's needs are.

[winoutreach5]

Thank you for your response. I have since started to use MDT in conjunction with WDS. This has made my life a lot easier and seems to be the best solution for what I am trying to accomplish and what my company's needs are.

 

I am so happy to hear that, tmcgraw, and please feel free to let me know if you need any help in the future.

 

Jessica

Windows Outreach Team -- IT Pro