Adding Drivers to Universal WIN7 image using Dism with multiple indexes

[Jerzi61]

I have a Universal (all editions) Win7 installation ISO that I am adding USB 3 and Network Adapter Drivers to and since I have nine WIN7 Editions in this image I have 9 separate indexes (1-9). Therefore when I have to put in my command I must specify ONLY one Index number; how do I get all nine versions to utilize the added drivers? I can't imagine I have to add the drivers packs to each index. Any help would be cool. Not allot online about this stuff. Thanks

[mrwoberts]

Yes, you'll need to 'add' those drivers to every index. However, I believe the way the indexing system works in a WIM file is by de-duplicating data so that the WIM doesn't bulk out by adding duplicates of identical files. Does that make sense?

 

So, add the drivers to every index, but the size of your wim should only increase to just over the size of a single addition of those drivers.

[JasonNVSD]

Forgive my ignorance, but I thought you can take any Windows 7 ISO and simply delete the ei.cfg file to make it a universal (i.e. install any edition). No indexes required.

[mrwoberts]

Forgive my ignorance, but I thought you can take any Windows 7 ISO and simply delete the ei.cfg file to make it a universal (i.e. install any edition). No indexes required.

 

I think you misunderstood the question.

Removing the ei.cfg file helps to make an iso 'universal', but won't help when he wants to add drivers to each edition, within the wim file.

[JasonNVSD]

Removing the ei.cfg file helps to make an iso 'universal', but won't help when he wants to add drivers to each edition, within the wim file.

Yes, but then you'd only have a single wim file for all editions, so his issue of only being able to specify a single index number wouldn't be an issue anymore.

[mrwoberts]

He started by saying,

I have a Universal (all editions) Win7 installation ISO

 

He is asking how to inject drivers into each, edition. That can't be done without specifying each index. Feel free to try and get back to me.

[NviGate_Systems]

Your single WIM file still has multiple indexes. The ei.cfg simply locks the installation to a specific index to save users the trouble of worrying what to select. A typical Retail Windows 7 install can have up to 5 indexes.

 

Each index is a unique installation. Think of it as partitions on a disk. If you want to add files to each partition, you have to add the files 5 times, to each desired partition. Just because each partition is on the same physical disk, it doesn't automatically write those files across all partitions once you add them to one partition.

 

The beauty behind WIM files as mentioned, is it automatically de-duplicate files. So if you maintain a WIM file and add files, even if you add those files 100 times in different folders, your image will only grow by the size of the files you add plus a few kb here and there. When it saves the WIM it sees you already added those files, so it just leaves a marker which has the location of the files.

[JasonNVSD]

Extrapolating on what NviGate said, you could add the drivers to each index (with a script if you plan on doing this often) and not have to worry about the WIM size growing beyond what adding them once would be. Is this a solution for you?

 

As a side note, I used Intel's tool for this on a WIM file with 4 indexes. It didn't ask for an index number, so this would be a simpler solution for those not needing other drivers.