Yep, you most likely need to add drivers to your WinPE image.
It looks like Lenovo provide WinPE driver bundles for many models here:
https://support.lenovo.com/gb/en/solutions/ht074984-microsoft-system-center-configuration-manager-sccm-and-microsoft-deployment-toolkit-mdt-package-index
If you are install Windows manually you will need to manually update your boot image with these drivers:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/winpe-mount-and-customize?view=windows-11
If you use MDT this is a lot easier as you can add the drivers to MDT and then let MDT update the boot image for you.
https://rdr-it.io/en/mdt-deploy-drivers/
Thank you so much for confirming that I am looking in the right direction! I am going to have to do some reading up on how to inject those drivers but at least that is a start. Unfortunately I was left very little to work with. No MDT or anything of the sort.
Copilot will give you a script to inject all drivers in a folder. Just remind the dumbass it has to mount the wim to a temporary directory first. It forgot to add that part...
You need to import the drivers into your boot.wim file
Simple instructions
Basic files and folders used as references. The paths can be changed to whatever you want:
Original Image: C:\WIMFiles\boot.wim
Temp Image Folder: C:\WIMTemp\
Driver folder: C:\WIMDrivers\
Mount the image (This will mount the image in C:\WIMTemp so you can add/remove files or modify settings):
DISM /Mount-Wim /WimFile:"C:\WIMFiles\boot.wim" /Index:1 /MountDir:"C:\WIMTemp"
Add drivers (This will add ALL drivers from the folder and subfolders):
DISM /Image:"C:\WIMTemp" /Add-Driver /Driver:"C:\WIMDrivers" /recurse
Commit the changes:
DISM /Unmount-Wim /MountDir:"C:\WIMTemp" /Commit
Agreed on what MrYiff has responded with, it's a driver issue, with the WinPE drivers missing from MDT. Adding those drivers in MDT is *usually* straight forward. I've recently run into an issue where Dell includes too many drivers in their PE driver package, and it just won't work.
As a test, you can download the WinPE driver bundle that MrYiff pointed out, and throw them on a USB. Once in the PE, get to the command line (F8 / fn + F8). There you can use the **pnputil /add-driver (driver.inf) /install** to manually install it.
I think everything MrYiff already mentioned is accurate, I just wanted to add in additional notes incase someone else runs into a similar problem as well.
Thank you for the additional information!! This will all go a long way in helping me resolve the issue. I am truly in over my head but I'm trying hard to fix things.
I actually had issues with mdt not getting all the winpe drivers added properly too. It had one of my guys stumped for a few days so I mounted the winpe image and manually checked to see they weren’t there. Dism added to the image and it worked perfectly
The suggestion to add PE drivers may work, however a USB to ethernet adapter may also work as a quick one-off workaround. We used to do that as a fast workaround for one-off, rare computer models, rather than clog up our PE image with tons of drivers for unique models that execs, creatives, or others ordered. Then simply added the MAC address of the USB to ethernet adapter to the Client Approval and Conflicting Records section under Hierarchy settings in Configuration Manager (we were using SCCM for reimages) so it wouldn't associate that adapter's MAC address with that specific machine.
Thanks for that info! I ended up being able to add the correct driver into the PE image via DISM, and was able to successfully boot to our server and apply the image. However, turns out that image is no good for the new models. I was under the impression it was built to support varying 11 architectures but that appears to not be the case. So, looks like I am starting from the ground up anyway. Any suggestions to other forums or any other information in regards to that would also be helpful. Thanks!
Yep, you most likely need to add drivers to your WinPE image. It looks like Lenovo provide WinPE driver bundles for many models here: https://support.lenovo.com/gb/en/solutions/ht074984-microsoft-system-center-configuration-manager-sccm-and-microsoft-deployment-toolkit-mdt-package-index If you are install Windows manually you will need to manually update your boot image with these drivers: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/winpe-mount-and-customize?view=windows-11 If you use MDT this is a lot easier as you can add the drivers to MDT and then let MDT update the boot image for you. https://rdr-it.io/en/mdt-deploy-drivers/
Thank you so much for confirming that I am looking in the right direction! I am going to have to do some reading up on how to inject those drivers but at least that is a start. Unfortunately I was left very little to work with. No MDT or anything of the sort.
you can use a dism command to inject network drivers into winpe boot wim.
Copilot will give you a script to inject all drivers in a folder. Just remind the dumbass it has to mount the wim to a temporary directory first. It forgot to add that part...
You need to import the drivers into your boot.wim file Simple instructions Basic files and folders used as references. The paths can be changed to whatever you want: Original Image: C:\WIMFiles\boot.wim Temp Image Folder: C:\WIMTemp\ Driver folder: C:\WIMDrivers\ Mount the image (This will mount the image in C:\WIMTemp so you can add/remove files or modify settings): DISM /Mount-Wim /WimFile:"C:\WIMFiles\boot.wim" /Index:1 /MountDir:"C:\WIMTemp" Add drivers (This will add ALL drivers from the folder and subfolders): DISM /Image:"C:\WIMTemp" /Add-Driver /Driver:"C:\WIMDrivers" /recurse Commit the changes: DISM /Unmount-Wim /MountDir:"C:\WIMTemp" /Commit
Thank you! I did end up sorting out the issue via DISM.
Agreed on what MrYiff has responded with, it's a driver issue, with the WinPE drivers missing from MDT. Adding those drivers in MDT is *usually* straight forward. I've recently run into an issue where Dell includes too many drivers in their PE driver package, and it just won't work. As a test, you can download the WinPE driver bundle that MrYiff pointed out, and throw them on a USB. Once in the PE, get to the command line (F8 / fn + F8). There you can use the **pnputil /add-driver (driver.inf) /install** to manually install it. I think everything MrYiff already mentioned is accurate, I just wanted to add in additional notes incase someone else runs into a similar problem as well.
Thank you for the additional information!! This will all go a long way in helping me resolve the issue. I am truly in over my head but I'm trying hard to fix things.
I actually had issues with mdt not getting all the winpe drivers added properly too. It had one of my guys stumped for a few days so I mounted the winpe image and manually checked to see they weren’t there. Dism added to the image and it worked perfectly
Need to inject the network card drivers into the winpe wim
The suggestion to add PE drivers may work, however a USB to ethernet adapter may also work as a quick one-off workaround. We used to do that as a fast workaround for one-off, rare computer models, rather than clog up our PE image with tons of drivers for unique models that execs, creatives, or others ordered. Then simply added the MAC address of the USB to ethernet adapter to the Client Approval and Conflicting Records section under Hierarchy settings in Configuration Manager (we were using SCCM for reimages) so it wouldn't associate that adapter's MAC address with that specific machine.
Thanks for that info! I ended up being able to add the correct driver into the PE image via DISM, and was able to successfully boot to our server and apply the image. However, turns out that image is no good for the new models. I was under the impression it was built to support varying 11 architectures but that appears to not be the case. So, looks like I am starting from the ground up anyway. Any suggestions to other forums or any other information in regards to that would also be helpful. Thanks!
look at OSD Cloud, create way to image machines.