Question is, what are the advantages of adding the drivers to the boot image? What would happen if you didn't have them added and the default boot image didn't include them already? Would the TS fail? During which step?

If you don't have a driver for the networkcard or the storage it's not possible to do OSD. Yes the TS will fail directly.

but you can find DHCP server with no boot image or drivers?

Hi, yes, when you PXE-boot you will get an IP-addres en WinPe will download, but from within WinPE you will not get an IP address and then it cannot install the TS without a working Netowork Driver. Regards, Jrgen-- My System Center blog ccmexec.com -- Twitter @ccmexec

Hi, yes, when you PXE-boot you will get an IP-addres en WinPe will download, but from within WinPE you will not get an IP address and then it cannot install the TS without a working Netowork Driver. Regards, Jrgen-- My System Center blog ccmexec.com -- Twitter @ccmexec

The boot image contains WinPE which loads on the target system and is the core OS used to perform the intial system preparation and OS delivery. This instance of WinPE must have access to the hard disk and the network. Becuase of this, it needs the appropriate drivers to access both -- many are built in, but not all.Jason | http://blog.configmgrftw.com | Twitter @JasonSandys

The boot image contains WinPE which loads on the target system and is the core OS used to perform the intial system preparation and OS delivery. This instance of WinPE must have access to the hard disk and the network. Becuase of this, it needs the appropriate drivers to access both -- many are built in, but not all.Jason | http://blog.configmgrftw.com | Twitter @JasonSandys

So why is it that if I include the NIC drivers in the boot image, then it applys the OS and installs the client, and sets up windows. If I don't it fails these steps and won't start the TS. But then it won't do anything else (no software installs or software updates) if I don't include a driver packages with the NIC drivers in it in the TS. If I include this package the entire TS works fine, if I don't it errors out with a 80070002 error on the first software install after Windows is installed. So I guess it can't use the drivers in the boot image for software installs/software updates?

Correct. They are two different things. After (actually during) the Windows Setup and ConfigMgr task, the task sequence is no longer using your boot image and is instead using the OS you are deploying thus the drivers must also (and separately) be available to the OS you are deploying using the typical driver deployment methods. As with the boot image, many drivers are included with the Windows by default so explicitly adding additional drivers is not always required.Jason | http://blog.configmgrftw.com