Windows installation through USB: "A media driver is missing."

[Deleted member 44897]

[EDIT: Also applies to Windows 7.]

I have Windows 10 Home on a bootable USB for installation (I have discarded my CD-ROM drive in favor of USB installations). But for some reason, I cannot get it to install. Here's the story.

Flash drive is plugged into a rear USB port in my tower (malfunctioning front USB's, another story). Windows 10 Setup boots into the "Language and Other Preferences" menu. I move on and click "Install Now".

Now, at the Load Driver screen, it prompts me to "Select the driver to install". However, it doesn't find anything and I get the following error message:

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.

Do I have an incomplete Windows 10 installation ISO? I downloaded it straight from Microsoft. Otherwise, where am I supposed to obtain the mystery driver and what it it for?

I'm frustrated. If anyone could help me through this, this would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[little_me]

it would most likely refer to chipset drivers to allow computer to see the hard disks to install win10 to them.
Windows 10 has many drivers for sata chipsets but might be missing the ones for your motherboard.
most refer to them as SATA/AHCI/RAID drivers, depending on what mode it is set to in bios (AHCI by default)
Said drivers are downloadable from motherboard manufacturers site, unpack to usb and give computer those when it wants them. (motherboard driver CD would have them too)

 

[Deleted member 44897]

(I discovered that this issue applies to the Windows 7 bootup as well, but a slightly different wording of the error message.)

I tried changing the BIOS entry from AHCI to IDE...this did not solve the issue. Then I searched for all Win10 drivers for my motherboard, the Asus M5A99x Evo. Only drivers available were the Audio and LAN drivers...that's it. Nothing for USB 3.0.

Nevertheless, I loaded all my Win7 drivers onto the flash drive and tried to have them detected, but to no avail. Then I tried a common "solution" in which I remove the flash drive and insert it into another USB port, and try "Install Now" again. Of course, that didn't work.

I'm confused as to what drivers I may be missing for the Windows 7 and 10 USB bootup sequence. Or, for that matter, what the issue might be. No tutorials I've ever read indicated that I would come across this issue when installing my OS's from the flash drive.

Any further assistance would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[little_me]

well, You are correct that for windows 10/8, no such drivers are provided. Probably on assumption that windows should have them already.

For windows 7, they exist though.
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M5A99X_EVO/HelpDesk_Download/
Windows 7, down in sata:
AMD AHCI Driver V1.2.1.292 for Windows Vista/7 32bit & 64bit.(WHQL)

Which is a zip file that needs to be extracted. windows will only look for driver .inf files, not inside zip files.
the drivers are in
AMD_AHCI_Driver_V121292_V33154013_XPVistaWin7\Driver\Disk\AHCI\WIN7\x64 (for windows 7, 64 bit)

That said, the issue should exist only for windows 7 since drivers should (based on wild assumption that they are not provided) exist for later versions of windows on windows install media already. Driver compatibility in win7-8-10 is decent though so windows 10 could work with windows 7 drivers, IF that is an issue.

However, there is also a list on asus site: that says that non-listed MB's do not support windows 10.
https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1013093/

That includes only M5A99X EVO R2.0 which is revision 2.0 of the board you have, meaning pretty much that your board will not support windows 10.
That said, it might work with windows 7 AHCI drivers or.. not, no guarantees. but windows 7 install should work with said driver though.

 

[Colif]

Another way to fix it is just run chkdsk on the USB disc and let it fix system files. The cause is the USB has errors on it. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2755139

 

[Deleted member 44897]

I ran a CHKDSK on the flash drive, and the error check turned up negative.

So I downloaded a fresh Win7 image straight from Microsoft and created a new bootable ISO (via "Rufus") flash drive, with ONLY Win7. (Only this time I didn't change the filename of the ISO.) I plugged it into a rear USB 2.0 port, and it booted right into the Win7 EULA & hard disk selection menu. Thank gosh! I instantly deduced that it might be because I kept the filename as is.

But wait, there's more. On a whim, when I decided to reboot the flash drive in USB 3.0, I got that "missing media driver" error message again. (The filename had nothing to do with it.) I repeated the boot between the USB ports three times to confirm this.

So it looks like for sure, this flash drive needs to boot from USB 2.0. Is this necessary, or can I get it to work through 3.0? After all, as stated, when I loaded the motherboard's 3.0 drivers onto the flash drive before, the setup wouldn't accept them...

Just an update. What are your thoughts? Thanks again.

 

[Colif]

USB 2 doesn't require the additional driver to install...

http://superuser.com/questions/997388/windows-10-iso-wont-install-from-a-flash-drive

In other words, install win using USB 2 and ignore the pain. Win 10 will install USB 3 drivers in its own time, during the process, not before you start.