Overview
When doing Windows 7 builds in either MDT 2010 or ConfigMgr 2007 you have to download and install a selection of drivers that are to be installed in your images. Some drivers are used for the WinPE boot image so that the boot image can access the local harddisk (a boot critical driver) and also drivers that allow the machine to connect to the network so that it can continue the MDT/ConfigMgr build process. I tend to use the latest versions of certain boot critical drivers direct from the main vendor (i.e. Intel and Broadcom) for my boot images and references machines. Then, at deployment-time, I’ll inject the vendor-specific drivers on a model-by-model basis. This also helps keep the reference machine ‘clean’ and free from all those bits of add-on software and control panel applets that some vendor drivers inflict on us. It also helps keep the number of drivers injected into the boot image to a minimum, all too often I’ve seen hundereds of vendor versions of the exact same driver injected into a boot image and some of them can be really buggy or bloat the image for no reason.
As these drivers can be a little difficult to find, this post details the download locations of MDT and ConfigMgr build drivers for Windows 7 that will cater for 99% of the machines that you will ever likely encounter. I’ll try to keep it updated whenever the download locations change (I’ll be using this page as a reference point for myself too!).
Intel® Rapid Storage Technology – Boot Critical Driver
This driver will handle Intel RAID and SATA for the vast majority of Intel desktop and laptop machines. Without this driver Windows will be unable to access the local hard disk.
Download Intel® Rapid Storage Technology Driver (select your required OS version in the dropdown list)
To extract the driver files run:
iata_enu.exe -e -p C:\Intel_RST_Driver
Intel® PROSet Wired Network Drivers – Network Driver
These PROSet drivers will handle Intel wired Ethernet on the majority of desktop and laptop machines.
Download Intel® PROSet Wired Network Drivers (select your required OS version in the dropdown list)
To extract the driver files run:
PROWin.exe /f C:\Intel_PROSet_Driver /s /e
Broadcom NetXtreme Desktop Drivers – Network Driver
If a machine doesn’t use the Intel PROSet drivers then it’s almost certainly going to be the Broadcom NetXtreme variety.
Download Broadcom NetXtreme Network Drivers
Intel® 5, 4, 3, 900 Series Chipsets – System Drivers
These Intel chipset drivers aren’t required for boot or reference images but they handle a lot of the ‘unknown’ devices on Intel-chipset machines. I tend to include these as a generic set of drivers for most machines rather than using the vendor versions that are often outdated.
Download the Intel® 5, 4, 3, 900 Series Chipsets Drivers (select your required OS version in the dropdown list and download the .ZIP version)
Summary
Armed with the latest versions of these drivers you should be able to get your MDT or ConfigMgr build process working on most of the machines in common use saving you hours of hunting around the baffling array of drivers on Intel’s website!
Good writeup.