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Installing Windows Server 2008 R2 on a notebook and getting all those required drivers.

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If you are like me, you use Windows Server 2008 R2 as your standard desktop/notebook OS. If you have installed Windows Server 2008 R2 on your notebook, you might notice that you ended up with a series of yellow bangs for missing device drivers. I found a workaround to get those drivers without have to manually go find them all from Windows Catalog. Try this….

1) Install Windows Server 2008 R2 on your notebook (I am using a Lenovo T61P), but leave about 20GB of free space available.

2) Install all the roles and features on your machine….here is what I have

- Hyper-V role
- Desktop Experience feature
- Wireless LAN
- Windows Server Backup

3) Run Windows update to get any driver updates….you will end up with multiple missing device drivers in Device Manager.

4) On that additional 20 GB partition, install Windows 7 x64 Enterprise or Ultimate

5) Run Windows update on the Windows 7 installation until all yellow bangs are resolved (this might take a couple of reboots)

6) Now reboot into the Windows Server 2008 R2 installation, open Device Manager

7) For each yellow bang, right click it and say Update Driver Software, when you get the dialog, select Browse my computer for driver software

8) In the dropdown box at the top of the screen, browse to the drive that has Windows 7 installed and go to Drive:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository, Click Next

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9) The new driver should be found and automatically installed.

10) Repeat for all other drivers.

When you are done, you should have Windows 7 x64 drivers installed (except for the Bluetooth driver probably)

Hope that helps you fellow Windows Server 2008 R2 users….

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Great solution. Thanks a lot...

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Robert has a good post up for folks wanting to run Windows Server 2008 R2 on their laptops. A lot of

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Дошли руки на выходных обновить систему до Windows Server 2008 R2. У меня ско

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Дошли руки на выходных обновить систему до Windows Server 2008 R2. У меня скоро важная презентация на...

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Great article, thanks!

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    When are we going to get some Bluetooth love? I have some devices that I would like to use such as my Microsoft Notebook Presenter 8000 Mouse. Being a developer, I need my laptop to have 2008 R2 and since most employers will not fork over the money for two machines (nor would I wish to lug both around), having Bluetooth acutally working would be nice (without having to disable driver signing, after all security on corporate development machines is important). Any work on this front?

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    PingBack from http://www.primenotebook.com/1969/12/31/robert-larson-installing-windows-server-2008-r2-on-a-bnotebookb-bb/

  • Anonymous
    May 27, 2010
    The problem with Bluetooth is that there aren't very many signed drivers out there and Windows Server 2008 R2 won't load them unless you flip a registry entry that allows you to by-pass that restriction on boot-up... which gets really bothersome on a laptop, with Hyper-V, without power managment. Big mess!

  • Anonymous
    October 22, 2010
    Does any software firms make drivers for compaq presario B1200 series laptops. If anybody find it the post ur comment on this site.

  • Anonymous
    February 12, 2011
    This technique worked well for me except for the Ethernet and wireless adapter drivers.  My wireless is a Realtek mini-PCI and the Ethernet is Intel 82577LM Gigabit Network Connector.  I'm still looking for those drivers.  Any ideas would be appreciated.

  • Anonymous
    March 02, 2011
    Whats with the 'no signing'. Not like this is alien life form...developers need to do the work correctly. This would include MS getting on board with a BT world! If I choose to use 2008 r2 why then is it so hard for MS to understand that BT is necessary for us to work? Continuing my quest to get my MacTEK BT HART modem to work....

  • Anonymous
    September 13, 2011
    Thank you dear Robert. You saved my day. I started to panic when I couldnt activate my windows licence due to missing network drivers and found no help anywhere else. My Windows 2k8r2 VHD setup on my Windows 7 laptop is now up to speed.

  • Anonymous
    February 21, 2012
    downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx  82577LM Gigabit Network Drivers for 2008 R2

  • Anonymous
    February 24, 2012
    Dude you are so awesome!!!!!! Thanks!!!

  • Anonymous
    September 08, 2012
    Hi, am just confused and not able to use my notebook as i want to.... like playing dvd and all after installing web server 2008 r2. is it possible to run both windows 7 and server together on one notebook?

  • Anonymous
    September 24, 2012
    Basically useless noise.  Thanks for it.

  • Anonymous
    April 09, 2013
    Worked great for me Thanks for sharing this

  • Anonymous
    January 22, 2014
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    March 12, 2014
    +1,000,000,000

  • Anonymous
    April 15, 2014
    I replaced Windows 7 on my laptop with 2008 R2 and after installing the Applications and Drivers from a DVD I burned previously for the Win7, the Atheros driver was working, but no networks were accessible. Using ServerManager/Features I installed Wireless LAN Service and it started working properly.

  • Anonymous
    July 05, 2014
    Hi, My wifi is working but network driver is installed but it showing yellow color if i try to update but it won't solved can u help me how to fix this issue?

  • Anonymous
    February 28, 2016
    The comment has been removed