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

[stevo9er]

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.

 

[Nibiru2012]

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!! :ciao:

 

[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."

 

[yodap]

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.

 

[stevo9er]

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

 

[Nibiru2012]

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.

 

[stevo9er]

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.

 

[TrainableMan]

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.

 

[stevo9er]

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.

 

[stevo9er]

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.

 

[TrainableMan]

You are installing linux on the same laptop? Everything I've read says you must install Windows first.

Also it's a Dell so does it have a hidden partition for restore - another user had trouble with his install until he made that partition visible. And it cannot handle more than 4 partitions in total on a HD.

Also is the drive formatted NTFS? And are you letting windows use it's boot manager, as others can give it fits.

 

[stevo9er]

I only installed linux to see if I could successfully install something on the laptop. My ultimate goal is to get windows 7 on this thing. Between each install attempt I am running gparted and reformatting the drive. So when I tried Fedora I ran gparted and formatted it to ext4, then for windows I reformatted it back to ntfs.

 

[stevo9er]

I wanted to update this thread in case someone else has a similar problem. I finally was able to get a dvd burned of dell windows home premium (I am in rural Thailand, took awhile!). And alas the DVD worked, while only Fedora was able to be installed from USB (I tried every windows install xp to windows 7 ultimate 32/64 bit, and Ubuntu also).

I believe the problem is that the Dell L501X has two 3.0 USB drives and no 2.0 drives, and they do not play nice without the Dell Reneas drivers. Even after I installed windows 7 from the DVD they would not work until the dell driver was installed.

Thanks for the time spent trying to help me! Peace!

 

[Core]

Thank you for letting us know what worked, and marking the thread solved!

 

[savage0]

USB 3.0 was the issue

I can confirm, having the exact same error, that my issue was also USB3.0 port.

I moved the usb stick over to a USB 2.0 port and it worked without even restarting the laptop.

 

[LoveAll]

FIXED! - Ok, so I have read in multiple places that this issue (installing Windows 7 via a USB/THUMB DRIVE) is due to missing drivers or possibly an incompatible usb port of 2.0 or 3.0. I tried selecting browser and clicking on the thumb drive that has all the appropriate drivers multiple times with the thumb drive in each of the 4 ports on this laptop (note: i dont know if they are 2.0 or 3.0). I clicked the "X" in the top right hand corner of the box to X out the window with the thumb drive in the last possible usb port on the laptop, i then clicked the install button to continue like normal and it didn't show the "Select the driver to be installed" window and continued as it should.

IN SHORT:

Try another usb port, close the window "Select the driver to be installed" and click the install button again - repeat until you've tried all usb ports, if this doesn't work, i'm sorry and good luck!

 

[Lamar]

What happens if you already have the installation disc and don't have to download the files, would I HAVE to download it?

 

[TrainableMan]

The W7 ISO includes hundreds of drivers, so it can find most of the drivers it needs already, but there is some newer technology that did not exist or was not formalized when W7 was released. Even most of those drivers can be gotten once the computer gets online. The problem is the few missing drivers needed to get things going in order to even get online. Most commonly these are RAID and/or SSD drivers to access the hard drive and some newer Lan or wi-fi drivers; these drivers you would need to supply yourself if it requests them. USB 3.0 did not exist when W7 came out so, to install from USB, it's best to use a 2.0 port but I believe a 3.0 port should function as 2.0; if it doesn't and you only have 3.0 then you probably need to supply 3.0 drivers as well.

If the installation doesn't request drivers then it doesn't think it needs them to complete. And any others you should be able to download after you connect to the internet.

 

[Lamar]

So what will i need to do with w7 iso can you give directions? Note: (i cant access the pc just the outside of it) and at least, what size Pin drive will i need?

 

[TrainableMan]

If it has a DVD player I would burn the ISO to a DVD, too many people seem to have issues when they try the USB/DVD download tool. But if you insist then the pen/thumb drive must be at least 4GB.

Instructions to make a bootable DVD

For a flash drive you still need to save the .ISO file but then you need the USB DVD Download tool and you have to run it, pointing to the ISO as input and an empty 4GB (or more) flash drive as the output.

Then reboot the computer with the DVD or Flash drive as the primary boot device. After some files load the Installation menu should appear.