The most wrongest error message
-
If you try to install Windows 7 on a computer with a new-ish Intel CPU you won't get very far. The installer will stop and display the error message:
A required CD/DVD driver is missingThe good news is, if you Google that error message today, you'll quickly find the solution to this problem. However, a year ago, when I wanted to wipe Windows 10 off my wife's new computer and install Windows 7, that was not the case. It would seem that Windows 10 may be responsible for an increased interest in Windows 7.
After several hours of searching and trying various suggestions that didn't work I finally stumbled across an obscure blog by (seemingly) the only person who had solved the problem. Funny how it's always in the last place you look.
Bonus WTF: don't bother asking Microsoft. You won't find the answer to this problem in any of their documentation or websites.
So what is the actual problem that is causing this error message and preventing me from installing Windows 7?
Windows 7 doesn't natively support USB 3.0
This, of couse, immediately brings to mind many questions.
-
Why does the lack of a USB 3.0 driver prevent you from installing from a DVD?
-
Why can't you install from a thumbdrive plugged into a USB 2.0 port, since Windows 7 natively supports USB 2.0?
-
Why doesn't this happen with an AMD CPU?
Because fuck you, that's why.
So, you download a generic USB 3.0 driver from Intel's website and make yourself a new Windows 7 .iso to install from, and Bob's your uncle.
-
-
The actual reason this error message happens is that the setup bootstrapper in the Windows PE image can't find setup.exe in a sources folder in the root of any drive (for reasons).
What's funny is that you can boot a Windows 10 install disk, swap it for a Windows 7 install disk (of the same bitness), then click the "install now" button, and it should work fine.
-
@tsaukpaetra said in The most wrongest error message:
you can
Also, if you have appropriate network drivers, you can also connect to a network share and start the installer from there as well.
If you do actually have it on disk, and it really is detected, you can also manually launch setup from a command prompt, but that might be too hard for mouse users.
-
@el_heffe said in The most wrongest error message:
Why can't you install from a thumbdrive plugged into a USB 2.0 port, since Windows 7 natively supports USB 2.0?
Some computers put USB 2.0 ports on USB 3.0 (XHCI) controllers - my Yoga 2 Pro did that. Chances are you haven't seen this on AMD motherboards because they actually use EHCI controllers for all the USB 2.0 ports.
-
@el_heffe said in The most wrongest error message:
when I wanted to wipe Windows 10 off my wife's new computer and install Windows 7,
Why the fuck would you do that? Do you also ride a horse and carriage to work?
-
@blakeyrat windows 8 sucked wharrgarbl.
-
@pie_flavor said in The most wrongest error message:
@blakeyrat windows 8 sucked wharrgarbl.
And yet this is literally the first time it's been mentioned in this thread.
-
@tsaukpaetra I'm saying that's generally people's justification for not wanting to install Windows 10. That and 'they're changing control panel wharrgarbl'.
-
@pie_flavor said in The most wrongest error message:
'they're changing control panel wharrgarbl'.
I'm actually incredibly surprised nobody's put in a project to restore that TBH. Like, it's just a bunch of DLLs, right?
-
@tsaukpaetra Control Panel still exists, it's just not the default anymore.
-
I had a similar thing happen on many a laptop when trying to install Win7 from a USB drive. I'm not even sure if it was USB 3.0, probably not, but what would happen is it'd boot from the USB, you'd click install and then it would complain about not being able to find the Windows DVD.
The solution was:
- Unplug the USB drive
- Plug it into any other USB port on the machine
- Click back
- Click install again
- ???
- Install Windows as you normally would
Yes, this was at the time before Win10, if anyone asks.
-
So ... it's the same dance it has been since installing W98 or NT. Back then you needed drivers for your HD and/or CD. Now you need drivers for anything that might be connected over the USB hub chip/Southbridge or whatever it is called these days.
That is btw why it worked by switching USB ports ... not all USB ports are equal on the hardware level.
-
@luhmann said in The most wrongest error message:
That is btw why it worked by switching USB ports ... not all USB ports are equal on the hardware level.
While I'll grant you that, I was pretty sure that on laptops all USB ports, or at least all of them on the single side of the machine, are just connected through the same USB hub.
Though I might be wrong there. It also might access them on a lower level than that, but that's the impression I got when messing with flashing Android phones and being annoyed at
libusbnot handling hubs properly...
-
@onyx said in The most wrongest error message:
just connected through the same USB hub
that would be a sensible assumption ... then again if sense was a common thing this wouldn't be 
-
@blakeyrat said in The most wrongest error message:
@el_heffe said in The most wrongest error message:
when I wanted to wipe Windows 10 off my wife's new computer and install Windows 7,
Why the fuck would you do that? Do you also ride a horse and carriage to work?
Does your car engine stop working when spare wheel is missing? People wouldn't want to get rid of W10 if it just left them alone and didn't force updates on them at the most inconvenient times.
-
@el_heffe said in The most wrongest error message:
If you try to install Windows 7 on a computer with a new-ish Intel CPU you won't get very far. The installer will stop and display the error message:
A required CD/DVD driver is missingWhen ranting about old software, always remember the historical context. Back in 2009, DVD was the most common installation method, followed by network boot. When they made this error, the only possible cause was the user removing installation medium - and in like 100% of cases, the medium was DVD.
-
@el_heffe Surely that's caused by having a gimped computer where the shiny-biscuit reader isn't on SATA?
-
@gąska said in The most wrongest error message:
@el_heffe said in The most wrongest error message:
If you try to install Windows 7 on a computer with a new-ish Intel CPU you won't get very far. The installer will stop and display the error message:
A required CD/DVD driver is missingWhen ranting about old software, always remember the historical context. Back in 2009, DVD was the most common installation method, followed by network boot. When they made this error, the only possible cause was the user removing installation medium - and in like 100% of cases, the medium was DVD.
Reminds me of all the times early CD-based software would give errors referring to floppy disks/drives.
-
@gąska said in The most wrongest error message:
@el_heffe said in The most wrongest error message:
If you try to install Windows 7 on a computer with a new-ish Intel CPU you won't get very far. The installer will stop and display the error message:
A required CD/DVD driver is missingWhen ranting about old software, always remember the historical context. Back in 2009, DVD was the most common installation method, followed by network boot. When they made this error, the only possible cause was the user removing installation medium - and in like 100% of cases, the medium was DVD.
It still breaks on some drives regardless. I had a DVD install fail on a Toshiba laptop once because Windows couldn't access the fancy DVD drive that had lightscribe built in. Why the fuck is that not just a loop device and you ignore anything else when just doing reads, fuck knows.
-
@onyx was it Windows 7? Asking since you didn't say, and XP didn't have SATA driver which caused similar problems to the one in OP.
-
@gąska 7 IIRC, I'm sure it wasn't XP, very low possibility of it being Vista but I doubt it (and SATA problems were fixed by that point regardless AFAIK)
-
@blakeyrat said in The most wrongest error message:
@el_heffe said in The most wrongest error message:
when I wanted to wipe Windows 10 off my wife's new computer and install Windows 7,
Why the fuck would you do that? Do you also ride a horse and carriage to work?
I live in a house that is 10+ years old. I drive a car that is almost 10 years old. I own many things that are 10+ years old. And so does the vast majority of normal people in the world.
The idea that you have to change your operating system every 6 months is beyond absurd. The fact that Windows 7 works perfectly fine (other than a minor, stupid installation issue) and does everything I need, proves this to be true.
-
@el_heffe But if you bought a 2018 car, would you immediately trade it in for a 2008 model? That's what the FP is about.
-
@steve_the_cynic said in The most wrongest error message:
@el_heffe Surely that's caused by having a gimped computer where the shiny-biscuit reader isn't on SATA?
No, the DVD drive is SATA.
-
@blakeyrat said in The most wrongest error message:
@el_heffe But if you bought a 2018 car, would you immediately trade it in for a 2008 model? That's what the FP is about.
In your mind, maybe. In the real world, not so much.
What if I don't want to buy a 2018 car. What if I want to buy a 2008? I can do that because 2008 cars are available and it's perfectly legal to sell them, and, best of all, nobody is trying to force 2008 cars out of the market so that you are forced to buy a 2018 model where the seats are made of concrete, everything on the dashboard has been moved to some weird location, and the controls for the radio are in the trunk.
And people like you say "So what, I don't listen to the radio".
-
@el_heffe I mean, do what you like, but just don't get pissy when Microsoft stops providing Windows 7 updates for copies installed on CPUs that Windows 7 never claimed to support in the first place.
Since I know a lot of "I hatez new Windoze mud downgrade!!!" have criticized Microsoft for not retroactively supporting hardware. Which is ridiculous.
-
@el_heffe said in The most wrongest error message:
everything on the dashboard has been moved to
some weird locationa tabletFTFY
