Can't Clean Install Windows 8.1

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
V

Verar

Honorable
Dec 28, 2013
23
0
10,510
I'm currently trying to clean install Windows 8 after formatting my Hard Drive, but I can't get it to because it says

"A media driver your computer needs is missing. This could be a DVD, USB or Hard disk driver. If you have a CD, DVD, or USB flash drive with the driver on it, please insert it now.

Note: If the installation media for Windows is in the DVD drive or on a USB drive, you can safely remove it for this step."

It's on a DVD.

I either need to know how to install a driver on the black hard drive during the install process, or how to get around this error.

I have a computer that has the exact same DVD RW drive in it, so it should have the driver, but I don't know how to transfer it to a USB and get it to install when prompted.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Solution
Astralv
I cant remember details of how it looks. I had issue when my installation failed once due to overclocking. Computer shut down during install. When I started over, it would attempt to start from the place it left off. It already created the partition and in BIOS I would see SSD and another media with UEFI mark. Eventually when I got to the point where it doing partitions, I told it to format the whole thing. At the end it said, 240 Gb unallocated space. Then installation started. Before that I had partition that was created by Windows install. So what ever you see- format it. It should say your hard drive's size "unallocated space". Then move on.
Sort by date Sort by votes
if your bios is set to boot from the dvd. you should see a message hit any key to boot from dvd. hitting any key should start the windows install. if there still a mbr or system partion on the hard drive you need to use diskpart commands to do a full wipe of the drive.
boot into system tools of windows 8 disk and from a dos bot run these to wipe the drive.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300415
if your dvd is not a full version of windows but an upgrade it may not be boot-able or if you downloaded a iso from torrent site it may not be a true copy. download a known good iso from digital rivers web page and use microsoft iso to usb tool to make a bootable usb stick.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
My Windows 8.1 was purchased off the Microsoft store last night so it's a full version burned to a DVD.


I ran all the Diskpart commands to delete any extra partitions, but there's 1 that I'm unsure about

When I run Diskpart it says there's 1 disk

Disk 0 --------- 950gb total and 950gb free, give or take a few gigs (I'm currently running Clean All right now)

When I select Disk 0, and do List partition

It says there's only 1 Partition, and it's 100 mb

I had 2 other ones that were 97 gb, idk how much free, and one with 12 gb and ~870 free.

So I deleted those 2, hoping to get Partition 1 to bump back up to the 1 terabyte it should be.

The part I'm confused about is Partition 1. I'm assuming it's supposed to be drive C: because it's not deletable, but it won't show the full storage it's supposed to be.


Before I can install Windows 8.1, I need 2 things

The drive to show the correct amount of storage, being 1 TB, or lightly less, and I need a driver so Windows 8 will install.

I can't find the driver anywhere on the internet, so I need some help learning how to get it off of another computer that already has it.

It doesn't make sense to me why I need the driver anyway, because a brand new store bought Hard drive has nothing on it, but would probably recognize Windows 8 and Install without any drivers for the DVD drive.

So I'm clearly doing something wrong here.




 
Upvote 0 Downvote
the 100meg partion is the system restore partion. it takes a few other commands to remove it.
if your running an intel mb with x58 or newer chipsets then windows will have the needed chipset drivers for your hardware.
if your running a newer amd rig with the 700 or 900 chipset then you need to download amd chipset drivers and expand them onto a usb stick. then do a custom driver install f6 when windows installer starts.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
The disc that came with my motherboard should have all the driver, but after clicking all that we've found, we still get a message stating driver not found.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Okay, the hard drive is not 1 single drive (C:) and I'm down to 1 last problem, which is this issue with Windows 8 not installing due to a missing Hard Drive, DVD, or USB driver

It reads the Windows 8 disc, so I dont think it's the DVD driver, but I can't find anything about a Western Digital Caviar Black Driver anywhere on the internet, any help with finding one, or a driver that would fix this issue would be great.

Again, the error message is

"A media driver your computer needs is missing. This could be a DVD, USB or Hard disk driver. If you have a CD, DVD, or USB flash drive with the driver on it, please insert it now."
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
The drivers are installed after Windows already installed. You say- you bought Win 8.1 on Microsoft site. Is it retail version? Are you sure it is not an upgrade?

I can not give you step by step but this is very simple procedure. Select boot priority to DVD drive. When it starts, chose "Custom" or what ever it is option- the 2nd one. (I don't have it in front of me). This option will offer you to format your hard drive. You probably already created partition. Start over and use that 2nd option and get it to format your drive (it would get rid of partition). Then it will proceed with install. The only driver it may need is if you had Windows 8 update.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
No, this Windows 8.1 is the full version purchased for 120$ off the Microsoft store.

I decided to switch to using a USB boot drive for Windows 8.1 instead, I got rid of the missing driver issue, but I'm presented with a new issue saying

"Windows couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one. For more information, see the Setup log files"

Before this, I had to delete the partition I made, change the drive format to GPT from MBR and create a new partition again, otherwise I wouldn't be able to install Windows 8.1 on EFI- or something like that.

So, now I need to figure out why Windows doesn't recognize my partition, and it's the only one I made.

If I delete the partition I made, will the option to create a new Partition during the Windows install light up? It's currently greyed out and unusable.


On a side note, Sorry that the situation has changed, but I'm doing everything I can between replies, and sometimes the replies take a few hours.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I wish I could help more. In my experience- if you try it again- eventually it does what it designed to do. You have no reason to have these problems. There is procedure to create USB for installation- I never had to do it so I would not know. Did you try normal way with 2nd option- did it let you format the drive? And then asks for the driver? What you mean-you installing on EFI? I thought- you said- it was clean install.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
My BIOS is UEFI, so Windows wouldn't let me install while my hard drive was set up as MBR. I had to change it to GPT so it would let me chose where to install. That's when I hit this issue where it doesn't recognize my partition.

It is a clean install, there's nothing on the hard drive.

The Windows 8.1 install won't format the C: partition because there's nothing on it. Or, I'm not understanding something and it's actually not working. Not quite sure.

What I do know is- It won't won't install to the partition I created for some reason or another.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I cant remember details of how it looks. I had issue when my installation failed once due to overclocking. Computer shut down during install. When I started over, it would attempt to start from the place it left off. It already created the partition and in BIOS I would see SSD and another media with UEFI mark. Eventually when I got to the point where it doing partitions, I told it to format the whole thing. At the end it said, 240 Gb unallocated space. Then installation started. Before that I had partition that was created by Windows install. So what ever you see- format it. It should say your hard drive's size "unallocated space". Then move on.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
If you want to do a clean install of Windows 8.1 from a MS ISO on to an OEM machine - here's a video tutorial. It's super easy and you don't have to go through the painful upgrade process and you also don't have to get any special ISO disks from the manufacturer. ISO available for download. http://www.hecticated.com/video/490/how-to-clean-install-windows-8-1-on-oem-machine/
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


In my case it could not create a new partition even though I deleted the old partition and was left with unallocated space. I solved it by disconnecting everything from the PC except display, network cable, keyboard and USB-install stick (and only used USB 2.0 ports). Then it worked! So some device created some sort of strange bug/conflict for me.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote

Hello If you cant create a new partition then remove all hard drives except the one you want to load. I have 7 hard drives and a raid and this happened to me because I am not using IDE. I am using raid and a add in card. I removed the add in card and also unplugged just the sata data cable on all except the new drive I wanted. I also had to tell it which drive because my usb keyboard fails in the bios so I can set it. Don't worry about the teling which to boot from just remove all drives and just leave the one you want in and you should be fie.

Good luck,
Chris

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I had the same problem.

I discovered that the Win8.1 DVD burned in your own PC, after purchasing it from MS store is not bootable in UEFI, while the original DVD from MS is. Luckily I bought the DVD too, so, when it was delivered, I was able to boot it in UEFI, and run a clean install.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom