How to Inject Drivers into Windows PE 2.0 in 5 Minutes (or into a Windows Vista Image)

This is the shortest documentation I could create on how to inject drivers into Win PE2.0 (or Vista WIM file).  The screenshot beside STEP 5 displays the 3 critical commands I used to load nVidia nForce 4 ethernet drivers to my WinPE boot.wim.

1. Create a folder called C:\TEMP.  Then create two subfolders; one called DRIVERS and the other called MOUNT
2. Insert your Windows Vista DVD/CD, and copy DRIVE:\SOURCES\BOOT.WIM to C:\TEMP\ and rename it CUSTOMBOOT.WIM
3. Download the drivers you need and put them in their own subfolder under C:\TEMP\DRIVERS (i.e. C:\TEMP\DRIVERS\ETHERNET\ and C:\TEMP\DRIVERS\SOUND\ ) .
   • Don’t put the driver .EXE file into that folder, you need to expand that .EXE and get the driver files out of it.
   • WinRAR and WinZIP work well for extracting .EXE files containing drivers.  For WinZip you simply drag the .EXE with the RIGHT MOUSE a few pixels and you will see WINZIP, EXTRACT TO… in the context menu.
   • Make sure you do not change the folder structure your driver .EXE file may have created.
   • Use Vista (or at least WinXP drivers); DOS drivers will NOT work.
4. Click Start. Microsoft Windows AIK, Windows PE Tools Command Prompt. This assumes you have the Windows Automated Installation Kit installed.  UPDATE: DEC 2008 – Click HERE to download the new Microsoft Desktop Deployment Toolkit.
   • This will set a pile of software (i.e. imagex) in your “PATH” so you won’t have to search for it.
5. Mount (i.e. expand) CUSTOMBOOT.WIM with the following command:
   • imagex /mountrw C:\Temp\customboot.wim 2 C:\Temp\Mount
   • NOTE: if you are working with a Vista image (i.e. not PE2.0) then change the number to from a 2 to a 1
6. Inject your drivers using the following command:
   • peimg /inf=C:\Temp\Driver\FOLDER\*.inf /image=C:\Temp\Mount
   • be sure to replace the word “FOLDER” with the name of the folder.  For example:
     • peimg /inf=C:\Temp\Driver\ETHERNET\*.inf /image=C:\Temp\Mount
     • You will receive the following error if you do not enter the correct path
       PEIMG failed to complete the operation with status code 0x8007000
7. Commit your update and recompress your updated image using the following command:
   • imagex /unmount /commit C:\Temp\Mount
8. Congratulations you are done!  If you want to push this to a Windows Deployment Services (WDS) Server read on.
9. Start your WDS Console, right click on the boot image you wish to update, and select DISABLE
10. Right Click on that same boot image and select REPLACE IMAGE.  The browse to wherever you have your CUSTOMBOOT.WIM and select it.
    • in my case I copied CUSTOMBOOT.WIM across the network from the VM I created it on to my W2003 WDS server prior to the REPLACE IMAGE STEP
    • this process will update the existing BOOT.WIM and REENABLE it.  There is no need restart services
    • You could delete your CUSTOMBOOT.WIM but I keep mine in case I want to add more drivers in the future.

Much of the above article was based on THIS article which you may find useful if you have further questions.