Good practice for platform packs -- one for each system, or combined?

[qsteenhuis]

I'm working on trying to better automate our SmartDeploy setup and integrate it with WDS.

What's the best practice for using the platform packs? Is there any harm in combining all of the platform packs for platforms we use into one pack, and then using that for our unattended install for multiple models of computers?

We are using both XP and Windows 7, and have about 5 different machine models (Dell or HP) in use. I'd like to set up the WDS server so you can choose from just Windows XP or Windows 7 without having to specify the model, and then deploy the image with one click with all appropriate drivers. I just wanted to make sure that there isn't a risk of unexpected behavior with the extra drivers provided in the platform pack. Size isn't really a concern.

[Erik]

Hello, We recommend that you combine the Platform Packs for all models you want to support into a single Platform Pack file. During deployment the Deploy Wizard will then parse through the Platform Pack getting only the drivers that are needed for the machine type and OS you are deploying. The size of the pack will grow however all drivers are compressed and single instance stored.

Thanks,

Erik