Having trouble installing Win 7 to a new SSD/Rig with USB

E

ElevenFingers

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 30, 2008
Messages
193
So, here are the important specs of my new rig:

i7-6700k
Asus Z170-A
EVGA GTX970 SSC ACX 2.0+
Samsung 850 Evo 500GB
2 X SATA300 750GB - 7200 SAMSUNG SpinPoint F1 (32MB)
Windows 7 Professional (looking to upgrade to Win 10 once installed)

The HDDs are from an older PC (old mobo etc...) and I had planned on using them for storage. I didn't format them and don't want to since I think there are some old family photos on them. They have Windows 7 installed on them, but when I tried to boot to them I got the BSOD.

As far as I can tell the hardware is all assembled correctly; the monitor works, mouse and keyboard are registered, and the Bios registers all fans and the 2 hdds, the ssd as well as the USB stick which has been converted to a boot drive/windows installer which I have been able to use successfully for other systems.

The idea was to install Windows 7 to the SSD and once that was done boot from the SSD and then comb through the old HDDs for important data before wiping those, so that I have a brand new system.

I had the computer boot from the USB key and the Windows 7 install popped up right away but before I could do anything except select language, time and keyboard settings I got an error message which read something along the lines of: "Load Driver. 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. Note: If the Windows installation media is in the CD/DVD drive, you can safely remove it for this step" What's odd is that there is no optical drive (CD/DVD) installed in this computer though I have one laying around I could add. Any idea which drivers might be missing?

Initial searches on google suggested I try to use USB 2.0 instead of USB 3.0; I tried that. Any ideas on what the issue could be? Do I need to burn it to DVD and install an optical drive?

Much thanks in advance!
 
Last edited:
Do you have RAID enabled or AHCI? RAID may require a driver to load to enumerate the drives.
 
Thanks for the replies!

I don't think raid or AHCI is enabled on either of the HDDs and unless it's enabled by default for the SSD, it shouldn't be either.

As for the link to the Asrock help, it was helpful. I found this link for Asus motherboards and downloaded the file listed under USB 3.0 support. I won't be able to try it out until later, but do you think it's what I need? Since I have no internet at home (just moved) I need to organize everything at work.

I've ordered a new optical drive since my old one has Parallel ATA connection for which I couldn't find a connection on the motherboard. I could however cancel the order and save myself the headache of installing/burning from DVD drive if the above workaround works. Please let me know if you think it's the right driver or if you have found any others.

Edit: I also found this guide. Going to try things out and let you know, in case any others have this issue.
 
Last edited:
Can you disable automatic restart on system failure and let us know what the error code is you get during the BSOD?

I'm guessing it's 0x0000007B, meaning the correct kernel boot device driver wasn't loaded.

As far as booting from USB, note what it says:
A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing
Click to expand...

Generally that means one of two things. You're either using a USB 3.0 port that requires the appropriate drivers to be loaded before installation, or the image you have on the USB drive is corrupt.
 
I'll head home now and try a few potential fixes as well as get those error codes. I will have more tomorrow again when I have access to the internet. Please feel free to continue brainstorming solutions as these might not work!
 
Snowknight26 said:
As far as booting from USB, note what it says:


Generally that means one of two things. You're either using a USB 3.0 port that requires the appropriate drivers to be loaded before installation, or the image you have on the USB drive is corrupt.
Click to expand...

The USB 3.0 ports should be backward compatible with 2.0, if the drive is detected and is booting to the install then this means it is working.

However, the corrupt image is a possibility as I had this happen a few times. Usually it would try to install and get to 3% then bluescreen.
 
Try the Asus EZ Installer utility for Windows 7 that is downloadable from their support site for your board. It uses your existing ISO and creates a custom Windows 7 installer by injecting USB 3.0 drivers.

That's what I used to do my 7 install on z170 before upgrading to 10.

*Edit* Forgot to mention you'll also need the 14.6 F6 RST drivers available from Intel's website. Once you boot to the Windows 7 installer, created by the utility I linked, you'll have access to USB 3.0 ports. That will allow you to click "Load Driver" and browse to the F6 storage driver on a USB drive. For simplicity, just copy the F6 drivers into a sub folder on the same USB drive after you create the custom installer.

For some reason Windows 7 can boot to the setup utility without USB 3.0 drivers, like you have experienced, but you still need the injected drivers to access USB 3.0 ports within the installer. At that point you can browse to find the F6 drivers. You need the F6 drivers because 7 does not have the latest RST drivers integrated.
 
Last edited:
Thanks everyone who helped with the trouble-shooting. I managed to get Windows 7 installed. For those who are curious or come across this thread at a later time what fixed it was the following.

I downloaded the USB drivers here and patched the boot.wim file using this method with said drivers. I also had the Asus Z170-A CD that came with the motherboard in the newly installed optical drive. Since I did both at the same time I'm not sure which of the two methods did it, but something worked.

But I'm in a new pickle... it seems I copied down the win 7 product key wrong and left out the last 5 digits. I checked and I do have access to the HDDs once I boot to desktop (new install on the ssd) via explorer. Anyone know any tricks that I could use to get the key off the old Windows 7 install on those drives? (Remember I can't boot on them - BSOD # 0x0000007B)
 
ElevenFingers said:
But I'm in a new pickle... it seems I copied down the win 7 product key wrong and left out the last 5 digits. I checked and I do have access to the HDDs once I boot to desktop (new install on the ssd) via explorer. Anyone know any tricks that I could use to get the key off the old Windows 7 install on those drives? (Remember I can't boot on them - BSOD # 0x0000007B)
Click to expand...

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html
It can load external registry hives.
 
ElevenFingers said:
I don't think raid or AHCI is enabled on either of the HDDs and unless it's enabled by default for the SSD, it shouldn't be either.
Click to expand...

Just an FYI, AHCI and RAID are not settings on the drives themselves; it's a BIOS option.
And the settings generally available are Legacy (or IDE), AHCI, and RAID.

You don't want Legacy/IDE on a machine now-a-days, and sometimes RAID can require drivers that are not already integrated in to Windows.
 
Once I've installed Windows 7 is it safe to change BIOS settings to AHCI/Raid if the system is in Legacy mode? Or should I wait for the Windows 10 upgrade?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top