One Windows 7 image for various laptops

[andy_nic]

Hi all

 

I have 4 windows 7 laptop images which are all the same but have different drivers. We use Symantec ghost, but what I want to do is to have 1 image then have all the different drivers on that image. So after the laptop is imaged then after it starts up it does a unattended.xml to set up the drivers. But I’m stuck how do I use an answer sheet to install the correct drivers for the correct machines.

 

I’ve looked all over the net there seems to be a few ways of doing it, but I can’t get any to work.

 

Thank Andy

[DrCheese]

If you're up for moving away from Ghost, you can pretty much do what you're after with MDT2010/WDS. I have one image for all our machines and you can just upload the drivers to the server without needing to modify the image. During install, Windows will check against the driver store and install what's required.

 

It makes my life so much easier from the XP days >.<

[SYNACK]

I second MDT, you can even setup application install jobs containing any laptop specific apps like hotkey stuff to install, if you setup the database section (optional) you can even fully automate this kind of thing.

[Modus]

There is a unattended xml file you can use here Fog and windows 7 you will need to make some small mods to that file

 

The tool you guys need is called sysprep driver scanner Vernalex.com - Welcome i have been using this for quite sometime now only with fog, i have 1 image that works only many different hardware (i have several gigs worth drivers)

[Jose]

The windows 7 image I created for my new PCs this year, works on nearly every other computer and laptop in the school and install the right drivers without any aggro using WDS, if the hardware drivers for your laptops are already on the windows 7 dvd then it should just work. The only computers that caused grief were media desktops with soundblaster and nvidia products.

[RabbieBurns]

We have just started to make the move from ghost to MDT/WDS. Ive given the job of setting it all up to my junior tech as a project and he seems to be stumbling through it OK so will see how it turns out.

[Jose]

Ghosts form of hardware independence is Deploy Anywhere. Deploy Anywhere essentially replaces the Mass Storage and NIC drivers to make an image built from one model work on another. This alone doesn't get you all of the needed drivers (video, audio, etc...) but its a start. You could probably whip something together and have DISM inject the drivers online and let PnP figure out the rest.

 

The much easier option is to use another tool like MDT as other people suggested. You could also have a look at SmartDeploy, it offers all the same hardware independence (one image for any computer model) but is much easier to setup and use when compared to MDT. The drivers are also all handled for you as the SmartDeploy site has driver packages pre-built that you just need to download.

 

if the your pcs or laptops or over 1 year old and the image you use has all the updtes then one image should work. I have used one image on 7 different types of computers and latops, no issues. Two other types of computers worked fine other than soundblaster and nvidia cards. I believe I may be onto my dream of having one image to rule them all, other than media.

[Duke5A]

Here is another vote for WDS. Being able to point the console at the driver INFs and have it dish them out freshly imaged machines makes my life a lot easier. You need Server 2008 R2 to do this though.