This is so I can assign them to the MDT Windows PE boot device. Once the drivers are added, I create a selection profile for just the PE drivers. Just like I create folders for the operating system and platform, I also create a Windows PE folder at the same level. Once I download and extract the drivers, I import them into MDT the normal way, but into their own folder within the driver store. Another place I go for network drivers is Intel’s web-site and their PRO LAN drivers. OEMs like Dell and Lenovo make Windows PE drivers available for their hardware, which makes it easy to organize those resources. Like the target images, MDT’s PE needs network and system drivers to run on the clients to/for connecting. Many times I have had to troubleshoot a connection to MDT that wasn’t connecting only to find out a driver was the issue. MDT does support the use of static IP addresses at the welcome screen, but DHCP is better and essential if PXE booting is desired.Ĭreating the MDT (Windows PE) boot volume…ĭrivers are the biggest issue with regards to MDT’s Windows PE boot volume. Simply booting a PC to that disc or key, and with DHCP working, the PC will connect to the MDT server. The ISO is meant for a CD-ROM, or the modern USB key. The WIM is used for copy to an WDS server and served-up via PXE. These are located in the Boot folder of the deployment share. Each time a deployment share is updated in MDT the drivers and settings contained within that share are added to a boot WIM and a boot ISO that is used to connect to the MDT server. The good thing is that MDT has a provision for creating it’s boot sources built-in.

This is where the focus of this post will reside. MDT USB keys are copies of Windows PE, designed to connect to MDT and pull an image from the server. Pre-execution Environment (PXE) requires the use of a Windows Server configured with the Windows Deployment Services (WDS) role. MDT uses two ways to connect to the server over the network, USB key, and PXE. DHCP, DNS, and even WINS (if you’re feeling nostalgic) all must be working properly or else what could seemingly be an MDT/WDS problem, could actually be a network problem.

Networking between the MDT/WDS server and the target clients must be clear and working. The crucial point to all of this is the network. To do this, MDT uses a series of steps in a task sequence that perform the necessary operations to facilitate installation. The main point of MDT and WDS is to place Windows on a computer’s disk drive.

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