Windows 7 install error: "A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing" #

While attempting to install Windows 7 on a Dell Optiplex 3040 Micro, the following error appeared:

A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing. If you have a driver floppy disk, CD, DVD, or USB flash drive, please insert it now.

Note: If the Windows installation media is in the CD/DVD drive, you can safely remove it for this step.

Browse | OK | Cancel

(As it turns out, the problem is caused by a missing USB 3.0 driver, so installing via USB floppy, CD/DVD, flash drive, etc was not possible.)

Browsing for a driver on the virtual X: drive returned:

No device drivers were found. Make sure that the installation media contains the correct drivers, and then click OK.

Reports online did not sound promising, e.g.: 'No device drivers were found' error when installing windows 7 on new computer "FINAL EDIT - If you're here for answers, while nothing here worked for me, that doesn't mean it won't work for you, so I suggest you try everything here if you can. What I ended up doing is giving up on windows 7 and instead installed windows 10.").

Coming up with a working solution took more time than anyone else should ever have to invest in this issue again. Here's what worked for me:

  1. Format a USB drive as NTFS. If necessary, use diskpart.exe:

    1. list disk

    2. select disk x, where x is the number assigned to your USB drive

    3. clean

    4. create partition primary

    5. select partition 1

    6. active

    7. format fs=ntfs quick

    8. assign

    9. exit

  2. Copy files and folders from Windows 7 ISO or DVD to USB drive

  3. Download Intel(R) USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller Driver and extract contents

  4. Download, install, and run NTLite

  5. Click "Add" > "Image folder" > select drive letter of USB drive (E: in the example that follows) > click "Select Folder"

  6. Under "Operating systems | install.wim", right click the version of Windows that corresponds to your license and then click "Load":

  7. Once loading has completed, click "Drivers" in the left-hand column:

  8. Click "Add" > "Folder with multiple drivers" > browse to the folder containing extracted driver(s) > click "Select Folder"

  9. Click "Apply" in left-hand column > click green "Process" button at top left > "Yes"

  10. When processing is complete, click "Source" in the left-hand column to return to the main window

  11. Repeat steps 6 through 10 for the two entries under "Boot/Setup | boot.wim" (in the screenshots above, they are "Microsoft Windows PE (x86)" and "Windows 7 Setup")

  12. If desired, make an ISO image of the USB drive (for burning to DVD-R, etc) by right clicking E: under "Image history" and then clicking "Create ISO"

  13. The USB drive or ISO image can now be used to install Windows 7 on the affected computer (see below for a list of all affected Dell models)

Notes

Updates

/windows | Aug 21, 2016


Subscribe or visit the archives.