[SOLVED] Installing Windows 7 Problem - "Select the driver to be installed"

So I just got a new laptop Dell L501X, it came with Dell Home Premium and some bloatware so I decided to do a fresh install of Windows 7 Ultimate...

My problem is I am stuck in the "Collecting information" state of installing windows on the screen where it asks for me to "Select driver to be installed" and gives a warning message that "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."

Steps I have tried so far..

Installing tons of different versions of windows. Home premium, Ultimate, XP Pro. I extracted all of the dell drivers and put them on a cd, nothing gets me passed this screen. I took out one ram incase it was a problem with having 6gb.. Nothing has got me passed this screen.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

I'll assume that you're booting with the DVD drive set as the "First Boot Device" in the notebook's BIOS? I'll also assume that you're putting in the install DVD and rebooting to start the install?

Don't try to do an "upgrade" install over the existing Home Premium.

Wipe the hard drive clean and delete the partitions then create the partition sizes you desire and go from there.

I hope this helps. Let us know what else is going on and exactly how you're doing this install.

Many Thanks,
~Nibs

P.S.
Welcome to the Windows 7 Forums website - stevo9er!!

Thanks for the quick reply.

I am using a usb drive to attempt the installs, my boot order is USB/CD/HDD/Removable.

I used gparted to delete -> format to ntfs, my drive before starting installation.

When I go to load drivers in the window I am stuck in it posts a message "No new devices could be found. Make sure the driver files are correct and located on the driver installation media."

Hey stevo9er, welcome!

I guess it's possible to install from a thumb drive. I've not tried it.

If you formatted to NTFS you have created a partition. Try deleting the partition with G-parted and see if you can install. Let windows format the drive for you. Worth a try.

Tried it with just leaving all the space unallocated unformatted, no dice. Thanks for the reply nonetheless.

Did you use the Microsoft Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool to install the Windows 7 Install DVD ISO to the thumb flash drive?

I have used it and it works flawlessly.

Here's info from the Microsoft Store:

Installation

To install the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool:

1. Click to open the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool installation file.
2. When you are prompted to either save the file to disk or run it, choose Run if you're using IE8 or Save if you're using another browser.
3. Follow the steps in the setup dialogs. You'll have the option to specify where to install the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool.

Note: You need to be an administrator on the computer you are installing the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool on. The tool requires the Microsoft .NET Framework version 2.0 or higher.
System Requirements

• Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit)
• Pentium 233-megahertz (MHz) processor or faster (300 MHz is recommended)
• 50MB of free space on your hard drive
• DVD-R drive or 4GB removable USB flash drive

Using the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

Before you run the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool, make sure you have already purchased the Windows 7 ISO download from Microsoft Store and have downloaded the Windows 7 ISO file to your hard drive. If you have purchased Windows 7 but have not yet downloaded the ISO file, you can download the file from your Microsoft Store Account.

To make a copy of your Windows 7 ISO file:

1. Click the Windows Start button, and click Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool in the All Programs list to open the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool.
2. In the Source File box, type the name and path of your Windows 7 ISO file, or click Browse and select the file from the Open dialog box. Click Next.
3. Select USB Device to create a copy on a USB flash drive or select DVD disk to create a copy on a DVD disk.
4. If you are copying the file to a USB flash drive, select your USB device in the drop-down list and click Begin copying. If you are copying the file up to a DVD, click Begin burning.

When your Windows 7 ISO file is copied onto your chosen media, install Windows 7 by moving to the root folder of your DVD or USB flash drive, and then double-click Setup.exe.

Frequently Asked Questions

The following are frequently asked questions about using the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool:
Where can I download .NET Framework 2.0?
The .NET framework can be downloaded here.
What size USB flash drive is required?
You need a USB flash drive with a minimum of 4 GB of free space.

Yeah I have tried using Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool, unetbootin, and diskpart. All produce this same situation where its asking for drivers before the installation starts but none of my drivers work.

I'm guessing there is no detail to even tell what the device is. Isn't there an option like skip/cancel/abort? If you can simply bypass that driver it may be much easier to tell what is missing once the install completes and you can look under device manager.

Nah there is absolutely no way around it. From what I have read most people assume it is either a SATA driver or there is some sort of hardware problem. The SATA driver doesn't load in this window and my HDD and Memory checks all pass.. I have never been this lost with a computer problem before.

Well it isn't my hardware... I successfully got Fedora installed. It must just be these a driver I need, and when I chatted with Dell their solution was to link me to the ftp with all the drivers I already had in exe format.