Question Need drivers for OS install; need OS to install drivers!

bentremblay

Distinguished
Jan 2, 2012
138
0
18,680
Notice:
As mdd1963 put it:
In short, WIn7 OS was not officially compatible with even even Z270, much less 370/390...

Win7 install succeeded (finally!) but the adventure failed.
Under Win7 Z370 MoBo refuses to recognize external HDs (Seagate and WD) and likewise 500Gig SSD.

====

The one thing I haven't done in all these years: install OS from scratch.

So my bootable USB from ISO launches fine.
But the installation demands drivers. Which took me by surprise.
No drivers in sight.

Going to the CD that came with my lovely new Aorus Z370 board, and what I see is "Run.exe" that should be executed from inside the OS, which would check the board and install the appropriate drivers.
BTW there's no CD or floppy in this box. There shouldn't be any call for this type of driver.

So ... catch 22?

Win7 won't install w/o drivers, and mobo utility runs only under Windows.


What am I missing?
How to proceed? maybe some way to copy drivers from the CD (I haven't found them) to USB and point Win7 Installation at those?

TIA
--ben

p.s. my best box ever ... I5 - 8400 and RX 270.
 
Last edited:

bentremblay

Distinguished
Jan 2, 2012
138
0
18,680
My bootable USB from ISO launches fine. But the installation demands drivers. Which took me by surprise. No drivers in sight.

Going to the CD that came with my lovely new Aorus Z370 board, and what I see is "Run.exe" that should be executed from inside the OS, which would check the board and install the appropriate drivers.

Win7 won't install w/o drivers, and mobo utility runs only under Windows.

What am I missing? How to proceed? maybe some way to copy drivers from the CD (I haven't found them) to USB and point Win7 Installation at those?
[...]
I just spidered the Gigabyte site. Lots of good downloads for this board! But everything driver related comes as .EXE ... which would be run under Windows ... which is not what the installation calls for.
 

bentremblay

Distinguished
Jan 2, 2012
138
0
18,680
Everything I find by searching ... related to drivers needed with fresh install of Win7 ... everything assumes that the OS is up and running.

It seems Win7 install is looking only for something very basic.
How to figure out what it's calling for?

Is someone familiar with this "failure mode"?
 

bentremblay

Distinguished
Jan 2, 2012
138
0
18,680
Evidently I'm not alone in this.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiTV3hJAn5s

see http://bentrem.net/images/Win7-DriverProblem.jpg

Not solved, so if someone has a simple fix ... would be appreciated.
Win7-DriverProblem.jpg
 

bentremblay

Distinguished
Jan 2, 2012
138
0
18,680
Perhaps this article holds the key:
Also this: official, from Gigabyte:
http://gigabytedaily.blogspot.com/2015/09/having-trouble-installing-windows-7-by.html

Addendum: Ran it twice, on each of 2 different bootable installation USB. "Failed to add files" all 4 times.

p.s.
I find this is unacceptable.
M$ ISO to USB works fine. But Gigabyte "Windows Image Tool" fails repeatedly.
Computer science is supposed to be deterministic. This is more like some silly game.
 
Last edited:
There have been a few cheats/patches to defeat the longstanding WIn7 not compatible with 200/300 series mainboards and post Skylake CPU's but...who knows how long those will last in validity.

In short, WIn7 OS was not officially compatible with even even Z270, much less 370/390...

Just get WIn10...as Win7 is dead on updates in 5 months anyway.
 

bentremblay

Distinguished
Jan 2, 2012
138
0
18,680
... extract the drivers from the container, then place them on to a USB stick ...
I'm looking at the folder for GBytes' WindowsImageTool and there are many subfolders. Many. Would all of those an a USB do the trick? will Win7 install know to sort through all of those to find what's needed? Because I don't know which is/are missing; I can't tell which one/s it's calling for.

BTW I've never encountered "container" in this context. What are you refering to?
I have the folders from GByte (above), I have the installation files on the USB, and I have the ISO ... where in that is the container?

p.s. I don't get it: Install needs an updated Driver to read the USB, but the installation files that are running came from that USB!
 
Last edited:

bentremblay

Distinguished
Jan 2, 2012
138
0
18,680
Might the missing driver be one from this directory? WindowsImageTool\USB\IntelUSB30\Drivers\Win7\x64 \
Probably not ... NVME drivers also needed. (Or maybe that's what's missing since that's what I have as boot disk.)

So, couldn't I just copy all the folders from the GByte utility folder?
WindowsImageTool\
WindowsImageTool\efi
WindowsImageTool\efi\boot
WindowsImageTool\efi\boot\bootx64.efi
WindowsImageTool\HOTFIX
WindowsImageTool\HOTFIX\x64
WindowsImageTool\StorageControllers
WindowsImageTool\StorageControllers\Intel_NVMe
WindowsImageTool\StorageControllers\Intel_NVMe\Driver64
WindowsImageTool\Thunderbolt
WindowsImageTool\Thunderbolt\Intel\x64
WindowsImageTool\USB
WindowsImageTool\USB\IntelUSB30
WindowsImageTool\USB\IntelUSB30\Drivers\Win7\x64
 
Last edited:

bentremblay

Distinguished
Jan 2, 2012
138
0
18,680
Meh ... done, done, done.
Time for Win10. And it installed plop.fizz ... though I hate every inch of it.

p.s. I'm going to keep trying to get Win7 working on this Z370 box (with NVME).
 
Last edited:
Might the missing driver be one from this directory? WindowsImageTool\USB\IntelUSB30\Drivers\Win7\x64 \
Probably not ... NVME drivers also needed. (Or maybe that's what's missing since that's what I have as boot disk.)

So, couldn't I just copy all the folders from the GByte utility folder?

You could try that. I don't remember offhand if it will look into the subfolders. So if that doesn't work, try putting all the drivers in the same folder.
 
Ok - here's , how you do it.
1. Integrate USB,vnme drivers into USB windows installation with Gigabyte windows USB installation tool for your motherboard chipset (Z370)
https://www.gigabyte.com/Support/Utility?kw=windows&p=1

2.Install windows 7 sp1 (if your install is without sp1 integrated, then install sp1 separately)

3. Install windows 7 convenience rollup
https://www.howtogeek.com/255435/ho...l-at-once-with-microsofts-convenience-rollup/
4. Stop windows update service and install hotfixes listed here manually
http://wu.krelay.de/en/2016-07.htm
5.Run windows update and install all security updates (probably hundreds of them).

Profit.

P.S. Do you still think windows 10 is not preferable to this?
 
Windows 7 does not have Drivers for the usb3 used on modern motherboards.
Some motherboards may have a bypass or special usb.
A usb connected cd drive will not work.
A easy solution is to temporarily install a sata connected dvd drive and use that to install.
Otherwise, there is a more complicated slipstream method to merge needed drivers into the install stream.
 

bentremblay

Distinguished
Jan 2, 2012
138
0
18,680
One detail:
MS will stop providing security updates for windows 7 soon
3 machines running Win7 since it came out and zaroo problems.

they allow you to use a legit windows 7 key to activate windows 10
I shouldn't have posted plop.fizz with the Win10 install. It /was/ that easy, and the key on this unused Win7-64 was validated. But no, the installation is not authorized. (Can't personalize bla.bla.blah ... I just hate the interface //period//.)
 

bentremblay

Distinguished
Jan 2, 2012
138
0
18,680
SkyNet - I'm quite sure it's the VNME drivers (absence of) that the installation is choking on.

1. Integrate USB,vnme drivers with Gigabyte windows USB installation tool
I see that this version is for my board specifically, so thanks for that.
BUT I've tried WindowsImageTool 4 times and 4 times it has failed to patch the files.

2.Install windows 7 sp1 ...
  1. Install windows 7 convenience rollup ...
  2. Stop windows update service and install hotfixes ...
5.Run windows update and install all security updates ...
I'm curious ... I need all this to install Win7 on the Z3710? I think all this is actually surplus to requirement.

Do you still think windows 10 is not preferable to this?
I have Win10 on another box and FWIW loath it many times per hour.
 
One detail:
3 machines running Win7 since it came out and zaroo problems.

I shouldn't have posted plop.fizz with the Win10 install. It /was/ that easy, and the key on this unused Win7-64 was validated. But no, the installation is not authorized. (Can't personalize bla.bla.blah ... I just hate the interface //period//.)


so because of a few things your willing to put your PC's security at risk and risking becomeing a botnet PC or someones bitcoin mining PC . at least look into an alternative like linux. smh
 

bentremblay

Distinguished
Jan 2, 2012
138
0
18,680
1. Integrate USB,vnme drivers into USB windows installation with Gigabyte windows USB installation tool for your motherboard chipset (Z370)
https://www.gigabyte.com/Support/Utility?kw=windows&p=1
SkyNet - Using the precisely correct version of the utility (windowsimagetool_z370) I got the same failure as the previous 4 tries, viz.:

GByte-Fail5.jpg


BTW in case you're thinking the USB was too small (I thought that might be the case) same thing happened with a 16Gig stick.
 
As I recall, older motherboards will not have windows 7 drivers.
But, windows 10 drivers often work.
What will not work is the intel integrated graphics.

One thing which can help is to install a free app called windows classic shell.
It changes that awful 1o interface to look like windows 7.
 

bentremblay

Distinguished
Jan 2, 2012
138
0
18,680
I was wondering about this:
Ifree app called windows classic shell changes that awful 1o interface to look like windows 7.

On the other hand, and more substantial ...
/rant deleted*/

Under Win7 the Z370 MoBo refuses to recognize external HDs (Seagate and WD) and likewise 500Gig SSD.

So Win7 install succeeded but the adventure failed.

Thanks for the help folks!
 
Last edited:
2.Install windows 7 sp1 (if your install is without sp1 integrated, then install sp1 separately)
3. Install windows 7 convenience rollup
https://www.howtogeek.com/255435/ho...l-at-once-with-microsofts-convenience-rollup/
4. Stop windows update service and install hotfixes listed here manually
http://wu.krelay.de/en/2016-07.htm
5.Run windows update and install all security updates (probably hundreds of them).
I'm curious ... I need all this to install Win7 on the Z3710? I think all this is actually surplus to requirement.

Yes. All of that is necessary, if you want windows update to work. At some point updates will get disabled anyway with unsupported hardware warning. But that can be circumvented with wufuc.
https://github.com/zeffy/wufuc