Windows 7 Installation Problem

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
2

2UWrangler

Reputable
Dec 27, 2014
7
0
4,510
I'm trying to install Windows 7 Pro 64bit on my wife's Lenovo G585 Laptop which originally came with windows 8.1 and my wife has hated it ever since,. In fact the system just sat in it's bag and collected dust.
I offered to install windows 7 and she said yes go for it.
So First I installed Linux 7 just to get rid of the Windows 8. (By the way the DVD drive went "south" some months previous)
I installed the Linux 7 via a USB boot device and it worked just fine.
NEXT I created a windows 7 boot USB from an ISO version of windows 7.
It also boots the machine and starts the windows install but halts with the following error message:
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.
Well at first I thought it was because the DVD actually doesn't work. The system can "see" it, but it fails to read any media. Sooo I removed the DVD from the machine and rebooted, the BIOS DID NOT report the DVD drive, so I assumed Windows 7 would NOT attempt to install any DVD drivers.
WRONG.. I still get the same error message. The so-called technicians at Lenovo are no help at all. Any ideas on how to resolve this problem will be most appreciated.
Guy
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Upvote 0 Downvote


Hi Original Ralph..
I follow the first part i.e. put the Intel RAID driver on a FAT32 USB drive. However you lost me on "...and when you get to the point where it's showing the partitions available, hit the "install driver" button, and point it to the intel driver "
"install driver button" ?? Could you be more specific ?
Thanks again
Guy
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
during windows installation process, you'll have a screen showing the drives / partitions. You can do it before that msg shows up, the one that said "...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." That's when you should see an option in bottom left corner that sez "select driver" or "option driver" - hit that and then you point the installation process to the USB flash drive with the raid driver on it, and then clik on the actual driver itself
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Thanks for your response Original Ralph.
I understand.
However when I boot the system from the USB I never see the disk partition information displayed.
Once the system boots I see the following:
Windows is loading files
Starting Windows
A screen with: Install Windows 7
Language to install:English
Time and currency format: English (United States)
Keyboard or input method:US
I "click" on the "Next" "button"
There's a set of choices:
Install now
OR
What to know before Installing Windows
OR
Repair your computer
When I select install now
msg: Setup is starting
Then I get the required CD/DVD message
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
actually, on the page that asks "Install now", right below the "what to know before installing..." there should be the "install drivers" or "optional drivers" button

do you know if your drive is partitioned GPT or MBR? If partitioned as GPT, then you'll need to install the UEFI boot file on the USB Flash drive - i've got a link for that.

in the remote possiblity, i'll mention one mistake i made initially was i was using an "upgrade" copy of win 7 ultimate, even though i'd paid $220 for it direct from microsoft online store. Ended up call into microsoft for assist, and ended being told that "upgrade" copy needed a valid windows copy already installed, for it to install. Go figure

2nd possibility, if you're using an "OEM" copy, windows changed a lot in their policies, and the OEM copy is only good for one license on one machine, and once installled is married to that motherboard. I suspect if you call into microsoft, and tell them you're replacing a motherboard, they might give you a new license for it, if that's the case.
if you're not seeing an option to install that driver, even after that error msg, then i don't know what to say except to suggest you try calling microsoft
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Why would you need to load RAID drivers on a system that's not using a RAID array? I see no mention of a RAID configuration. I almost guarantee you have bad installation media or media that's missing the boot configurations. This is not a RAID issue. I've never encountered any modern system that did not have raid that required additional drivers be installed to do a simple windows installation. If you follow the instructions I posted above, the installation should proceed. It's also possible the USB drive is faulty. I'd try another USB drive as well.

And yes, I do realize that all current Intel platforms use some version of the IRS drivers, but they don't use RAID specific drivers, and you don't need to install IRS just to do the initial installation of windows, ever.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
while it's title a RAID driver, it's also the AHCI driver, and all the installation guides for installing Win 7 or Win 8 on an xp941 or SM951 require it to install windows

why i can't say, but it is what it is - my installation on my xp941 wouldn't go thru till i installed it
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
His unit does not have an M.2 drive like those units. There should be no special software or driver requirements necessary to enable the installation of windows. I grant that anything, on any day, is possible. But that system has standard drive storage, no special configurations and is generally of a plain flavor variety. Windows installation should proceed smoothly unless there is a hardware issue or the media is faulty.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Darkbreez & Original Ralph... I've investigated this problem some more and here's what I found out from Microsoft.
My version of Windows 7 I'm trying to install I purchased on ebay, It's a "generic" OEM version, However, Microsoft told me that
OEM versions sometimes are different from a "Retail" version, and it may or may not install on a given machine.
I have 2 other windows 7 systems, I tried the USB boot drive on both, and the install worked in that I did not get the missing CD/DVD driver message.
However they are desktop systems I built using Intel Motherboards. Now in the past I have seen windows installations where the process loads all the drivers
scsi, raid etc... for a large variety of boards. I think this is what the UEFI/EFI interfaces resolves, the UEFI/EFI will tell windows loader about the machine's hardware config
and windows should only load those drivers that are compatible with the machine's hardware configuration.
There is something curious about this Lenovo G585 laptop. I noticed on the "first" page of the BIOS display, it has the phrase "Windows License WIN8 STD MLT"
However on the "Exit" page there is a setting "OS Optimized Defaults" ..selecting it you get two choices "Install Win8 64bit" OR "Other OS"
I chose Other OS, It worked when I initially installed Linux 7.1
However when I tried my OEM Win7 that's when I got the missing CD/DVD driver error message.
I do have a "Retail" version of Win 7 and I'm going to build a USB boot flash drive using the retail version ISO and see if that works.
Barring that I'll just remove the hard drive and install it in another machine and install windows 7.
If you can't make a play off-tackle..then go around the end.
More will be revealed
Guy
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
another "fred flintstone" work-around that worked for me - the xp941 was issue riddled getting win 7 installed. Once i'd gotten past the "install driver" page, it would then hit the roadblock most xp941 owners hit with the msg from windows that "it could not locate / detect a partition nor create one to load to".

I used EaseUS ToDo backup software (free version) to clone the previous installation (to a SATA SSD) of win 7 on this same machine. As the cloned copy was from a MBR partitioned SSD, it wouldn't boot, but did let me run the Win 7 DVD in "repair" mode. Kind of a backdoor approach but it did get me there
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
If you have a retail OEM version, not an OEM version created from somebody's machine, then it should work fine with the machine. That code you see is the bios windows 8 registration authorization, as on some units the windows product key is coded into the bios so it's always there. If you create your media using the link I indicated above, so long as the product key is valid, it will make exactly what you need to install from USB, with no guesswork. Then follow the CLEAN install instructions at the other link I provided, which will allow you to delete the Linux partition and any remaining windows 8 boot partition, which might actually be the source of your current troubles.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Darkbreeze & Original Ralph.
Got a lot further.
I removed the 2.5" hdd from the laptop and connected to one of my home built intel systems.
I then used my OEM DVD (It's legitimate I checked the key w/microsoft) to install Windows 7.
Rebooted the desktop and it worked ...
NEXT disconnected the laptop hd from the desktop and re-installed it in the Lenovo laptop.
It booted up, but because the hardware configs are really different I got the following error message:
"System files integrity check and repair Error code = 0x490"
I've downloaded all the drivers for this laptop from the lenovo website
I just have to figure out how to install.
Thanks for all your help and suggestions.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
That usually won't work. That's exactly why a clean install is recommended when changing motherboards and especially when doing a swap from AMD to Intel or visa versa. Occasionally it works, usually it doesn't. We just had a moderator who did a HTPC server platform swap and didn't need to reinstall at all, but this is an exception and there are fifty other cases that it did need to be done for every one that doesn't.

You still have not indicated the exact model number of the laptop, which is not Lenovo G585. That's just the model family. There might be ten sub-models, all with different hardware or platform configurations. The unit specific model number should be printed on the laptop casing in the battery compartment, under but not on, the battery.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
i agree a clean install is better, but for the heck of it try putting the win 7 dvd in the laptop's tray and select "repair windows" when the choice pops up

when i did it, windows ended up doing a complete re-install, giving me a msg it was going to save existing programs etc to a folder titled "windows.old" - after the installation, moving the programs back to their place took 30 minutes vs the 9-10 hours it took to originally install them
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I think I'd just replace the optical drive. You can get a bare 5.25" slim optical dvd drive that will fit pretty much any laptop for around 20-30 bucks. Simply remove the included faceplate and install your faceplate of your current drive for OEM fitment. Or maybe buy an external USB optical drive. It should boot from USB without issue with a good bootable image though.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
So, just to verify what I already knew, but to make sure it was a non-issue, I went ahead and pulled out my Lenovo G570, which is very similar to your 585, and also came with Windows 8. I created media using the Microsoft website to a USB flash drive and the installation went without a hitch. I then created USB media by copying the entire ISO image from one of my Windows 7 disks to the flash drive, and it does the exact same thing. It gets to a certain point in the install, and won't proceed any further. I'd download the Microsoft generated installation media and try it via USB again. Copying a CD or DVD ISO to a flash drive won't work.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


This may give the OP a solution but you say your installation attempt worked when you installed the ISO image of win 7 you downloaded from microsoft, but when you copied "the entire ISO image from one of my Windows 7 disks" to your usb it didn't work. The image on your win dvd is not an ISO image - using a program like RUFUS (freeware) or IMGBURN will create an ISO image, and it needs to be an ISO image if it's not on DVD. RUFUS will create a bootable USB flash drive and create an ISO image of win 7, while IMGBURN will only create an ISO image

fwiw
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Actually, it is. I have a complete ISO image "copied" to DVD, as a third backup option in case the drive with my data backups fails. It's not an actual installation disk, although I have several of those, both of my own and ones belonging to customers who insist I keep theirs for them. I assure you Ralph, this isn't my first rodeo. Wouldn't be the first time I'd been thrown either. Heh.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Anyhow, since you boys seem to think it needs to be a complicated process rather than the simple recommended method used on thousands, if not millions, of other devices, I'll leave you boys to it. I don't see how it could hurt, when there's a good chance it might probably resolve your issue, to simply download and create the media from MS, but Good luck with whatever you need to do to resolve your troubles.
 
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