Hi
Using MDT 2010 with WDS.
So, having read up quite a bit on this when I first put MDT 2010 in, I decided the best way of pushing out drivers (for me) was to use Driver Groups (as per Johann Arwidmark's 'total control' methodhere (thanks Johann (and Michael)!)).
Essentially what I have is within the Out-of-Box drivers folder I have two sub-folders, Win7x86 and Win7x64 and with in each of those sub-folders for the make then model of the machines (so Win7x86\Dell Inc.\Optiplex 790 for example). Then in my cusomsetting.ini file I state: DriverGroup001=Win7x86\%Make%\%Model% (and in my task sequences, in the Pre-Install Inject Drivers stage, I set the selection profile to nothing). This was, and possibly still is, all working quite nicely.
I then decided I wanted to start building some x64 machines, something I'd not done previously. So I injected the x64 drivers in to the relevant location within my Win7x64 folders. Doing so, it seemed to suggest a number of drivers were already in MDT, presumably in my x86 folder (presumably this could be correct?). Then it occurred to me that MDT wouldn't even look in the Win7x64\make\model folders due to what I had set in my cs.ini file so I added a new line: DriverGroup002=Win7x64\%Make%\%Model% and this seems to have worked.
Then it started bugging me that MDT would try and install the drivers from both the Win7x86 and Win7x64 locations into every image I deploy.
My question then I guess is is MDT smart enough to only install drivers that it finds in either location if the architecture matches the machine I'm deploying? And, if so, why do people suggest having two folders, one for each different architecture?
Generally, I download the Dell driver cab files from their site and import them. The cab files contain x86 and x64 bit drivers. If I'm imorting their contents to the Win7x86 location, do I even need to import them in to the Win7x64 location too?
I'd really appreciate any one casting their eye over this and letting me know if I've seemingly got this set up as I should and just quickly giving opinions on the four questions I've asked.
Many thanks