Why is the Win10/11 install ISO asking for storage drivers?

[uOpt]

I am trying a fresh install. Tried both win10 and win11, both show this. Why would they ask for drivers? This is an AM4 system based on an Asus PRIME X570-PRO. Storage is all AHCI or NVMe, which should be included in Windows.

Is it maybe asking for USB drivers (I boot the ISO from USB)? If so, how do I supply the drivers? Asus only gives you *.exe files that install on an existing system.


Click for 2176x1638

 

[bigdogchris]

It cannot see the storage device because it doesn't have the drivers. I don't know if you are using an NVMe or Sata drive, but Asus does make a driver available here.

Create a folder on your Windows USB installer called "Drivers" or something, then download the Sata driver from the Asus site I linked and unzip it, then copy the 2 folders into that Drivers folder. Then back on that storage screen on Windows Installer, click Browse and select the folders you created to load the drivers, then see if the storage appears.

 

[pendragon1]

how old are your install usbs? if old make new ones, x570 should be in the new ones. if not, that^^^

 

[uOpt]

how old are your install usbs? if old make new ones, x570 should be in the new ones. if not, that^^^

I downloaded both ISOs yesterday from MS. That is why I am surprised.

 

[uOpt]

It cannot see the storage device because it doesn't have the drivers. I don't know if you are using an NVMe or Sata drive, but Asus does make a driver available here.

Create a folder on your Windows USB installer called "Drivers" or something, then download the Sata driver from the Asus site I linked and unzip it, then copy the 2 folders into that Drivers folder. Then back on that storage screen on Windows Installer, click Browse and select the folders you created to load the drivers, then see if the storage appears.

Hm, those SATA drivers are indeed open tree (not an exe file). I'll try that.

 

[SmokeRngs]

Is anything in the BIOS setup as RAID? That's the only thing I can think of that might prompt for storage drivers in this case. I'd double check the BIOS to make sure something didn't get set as RAID by accident.

 

[uOpt]

Is anything in the BIOS setup as RAID? That's the only thing I can think of that might prompt for storage drivers in this case. I'd double check the BIOS to make sure something didn't get set as RAID by accident.

No, definitly not, the machine was running just fine in plain AHCI and NVMe before.. And BTW I want to install to one of the NVMe drives. Why isn't Windows saying which driver it wants?

I thought that it maybe wants a USB3 driver. The USB stick with the installer sits in a USB3.2 slot (the mainboards only external USB connectors are all 3.2). But I can't supply those since Asus' driver package for that is an *.exe.

Side note: from that dialog I can browse both SATA and NVMe drives as they are now.

 

[SmokeRngs]

No, definitly not, the machine was running just fine in plain AHCI and NVMe before.. And BTW I want to install to one of the NVMe drives. Why isn't Windows saying which driver it wants?

I thought that it maybe wants a USB3 driver. The USB stick with the installer sits in a USB3.2 slot (the mainboards only external USB connectors are all 3.2). But I can't supply those since Asus' driver package for that is an *.exe.

Side note: from that dialog I can browse both SATA and NVMe drives as they are now.

If it was a USB issue I wouldn't think it would be able to boot to start the installation process. Besides that, it's unlikely that a current image wouldn't already have that included.

You said it was running fine before so it had to have had Windows installed on it previously which indicates that this is a new issue from something changing. Unless there's something very wrong with the images you downloaded, something has changed. You didn't state that you double checked in the BIOS to make sure nothing got swapped to RAID. If you didn't do so, do it now.

I would assume the board has a header to hook up USB 2 ports. If your case has a connection for that, use it and stick the USB drive in one of those ports. I doubt this would change anything but you can try it.

 

[uOpt]

If it was a USB issue I wouldn't think it would be able to boot to start the installation process. Besides that, it's unlikely that a current image wouldn't already have that included.

You said it was running fine before so it had to have had Windows installed on it previously which indicates that this is a new issue from something changing. Unless there's something very wrong with the images you downloaded, something has changed. You didn't state that you double checked in the BIOS to make sure nothing got swapped to RAID. If you didn't do so, do it now.

I would assume the board has a header to hook up USB 2 ports. If your case has a connection for that, use it and stick the USB drive in one of those ports. I doubt this would change anything but you can try it.

Yeah, this matches my thinking. I checked the BIOS, no RAID. Also if I use that dialog box to browse I can see the old filesystems appearing, so clearly this idiot thing running there right now has access to the drivers for the drives and their controllers, so what does it want from me.

When I say things ran before that means I moved an existing Windows install to this board. I never ran the *.ISO iinstaller on this board before.

I will try an onboard USB 2,0 port.

I will also try disconnecting all drives except the target drive. Also removing a bunch of USB crap.

 

[dbwillis]

USB driver is needed if you say you can click that browse button abs see the nvme and sata drives
DON'T FORGET to install the os with only 1 drive installed

 

[uOpt]

USB driver is needed if you say you can click that browse button abs see the nvme and sata drives
DON'T FORGET to install the os with only 1 drive installed

How would I go about providing the USB drivers to the installer? https://www.asus.com/us/motherboard...o/helpdesk_download?model2Name=PRIME-X570-PRO

The mainboard chipset drivers there are only contain *.exe archives:
inflating: AMD_Chipset_Software.exe
inflating: AsusSetup.exe
inflating: AsusSetup.ini
inflating: English.ini
inflating: French.ini
inflating: German.ini
inflating: Japanese.ini
inflating: Korean.ini
inflating: ReleaseNotes_5.03.24.2328.rtf
inflating: Russian.ini
inflating: SChinese.ini
inflating: silentinstall.cmd
inflating: silentUninstall.cmd
inflating: Spanish.ini
inflating: TChinese.ini
inflating: Ukrainian.ini

 

[bigdogchris]

No, definitly not, the machine was running just fine in plain AHCI and NVMe before.. And BTW I want to install to one of the NVMe drives. Why isn't Windows saying which driver it wants?

I thought that it maybe wants a USB3 driver. The USB stick with the installer sits in a USB3.2 slot (the mainboards only external USB connectors are all 3.2). But I can't supply those since Asus' driver package for that is an *.exe.

Side note: from that dialog I can browse both SATA and NVMe drives as they are now.

All you do is select the folder with the SATA/NVME drivers in it, Windows automatically selects the driver it wants based on your hardware (see the check box that says only show compatible drivers). You can choose one folder and if it doesn't find the driver it wants then pick the other folder. I can't remember if Windows recursively looks through the folders though so you may need to drill down to the folder that actually has the .inf file.

The fact that USB booted into the installer means you don't need any USB drivers, you are overthinking this.

 

[uOpt]

All you do is select the folder with the SATA/NVME drivers in it, Windows automatically selects the driver it wants based on your hardware (see the check box that says only show compatible drivers). You can choose one folder and if it doesn't find the driver it wants then pick the other folder. I can't remember if Windows recursively looks through the folders though so you may need to drill down to the folder that actually has the .inf file.

The fact that USB booted into the installer means you don't need any USB drivers, you are overthinking this.

I supplied all 6 of the driver directories in Asus SATA/NVMe driver download separately. One driver was accepted ("NVMe RAID bottom") but the install nontheless asked for more storage drivers and did not proceed. Not surprising since I don't use mainboard RAID.

Out of an abundance of caution I also connected the USB thumb drive with the ISO to an onboard USB 2.0 port and removed all other storage devices (USB, SATA, NVMe), but the result is still the same.

Something odd is going on here.

I am tempted to install on my old z390 mainboard and then move the drive over.

 

[dbwillis]

Wait..
"USB thumb drive with the ISO"
How did you make the Bootable USB?
The MS media creation tool doesn't put the iso in the USB drive (should be a .esd file I think)

 

[uOpt]

Wait..
"USB thumb drive with the ISO"
How did you make the Bootable USB?
The MS media creation tool doesn't put the iso in the USB drive (should be a .esd file I think)

Unix dd was used to make a blockwise copy of the iso file to a usb stick. I can't imagine that this went wrong since it boots allright. Unless the esd file contains a different driver set.

 

[pendragon1]

ffs. download the actual creation tool and use that to make a bootable usb. that was kinda an important part to mention when i asked about them...

 

[uOpt]

ffs. download the actual creation tool and use that to make a bootable usb. that was kinda an important part to mention when i asked about them...

yessir

On my way. Although I have to point out that this would be hard to do with a down Windows machine if I didn't have a spare laptop

 

[learners permit]

I supplied all 6 of the driver directories in Asus SATA/NVMe driver download separately. One driver was accepted ("NVMe RAID bottom") but the install nontheless asked for more storage drivers and did not proceed. Not surprising since I don't use mainboard RAID.

Out of an abundance of caution I also connected the USB thumb drive with the ISO to an onboard USB 2.0 port and removed all other storage devices (USB, SATA, NVMe), but the result is still the same.

Something odd is going on here.

I am tempted to install on my old z390 mainboard and then move the drive over.

The NVME bottom driver is only used during an NVME raid array build so if pendragon's suggestion doesn't work(it should) maybe try a cmos clear to see if it helps.

 

[philb2]

USB driver is needed if you say you can click that browse button abs see the nvme and sata drives
DON'T FORGET to install the os with only 1 drive installed

Well, what if you have multiple drive partitions on your NVMe drive? Or more than one NVMe drive? Are you supposed to open up your case and disconnect all your non-OS SATA drives? Seems impractical to me.

Me, I always work carefully to rename the target partition for the reinstall something to "INSTALLTARGET" before doing the reinstall. That way it's pretty clear where to do a fresh install or even a repair install.

 

[dbwillis]

Windows install can add items to other drives present during install, formatting/ removing one of these additional drives down the road can cause boot issues.
There's been many threads about it here

 

[Dreamerbydesign]

Wait..
"USB thumb drive with the ISO"
How did you make the Bootable USB?
The MS media creation tool doesn't put the iso in the USB drive (should be a .esd file I think)

This. If you used the app to create the bootable usb drive, it will be proper. If OP used another app like Rufus or etcher, and made a usb from the iso, there could be an issue.

 

[uOpt]

Grrr. First of all the media creation tool is also hardcoded to use substantial space on C: without ability to change the drive letter.

Second, as you say the USB stick from the media creation tool behaves very different from the one done with the ISO. Although Microsoft's download page for the ISO specifically mentions that it is good for USB sticks. "

Download Windows 11 Disk Image (ISO) for x64 devices​

This option is for users that want to create a bootable installation media (USB flash drive, DVD) or create a virtual machine (.ISO file) to install Windows 11. This download is a multi-edition ISO which uses your product key to unlock the correct edition."

Third, I tried Win11 first and it rejects my PC on specs, although it is clearly within specs and I made sure TPM 2.0 is on in the BIOS. I wouldn't have too much of a problem with that if it wasn't for the fact that it tells me nothing about which capability is missing. Apparently you can only get that information by first installing Win10 and then use that one's checker.

I am making Win10 now...

 

[uOpt]

Oh what a shitshow.

Win10's installer refuses to install to the NVMe M.2, which is in the second slot on my mobo because "the system may not be able to boot from it". Never mind it has booted from there for years. Had to remove the graphics card again to reach the first slot. In the processes of this so-called install I have taken my computer pretty much completely apart.

Apparently you are now forced to log in with a MSN ID, otherwise you cannot proceed with install.

That seems to have the intended benefit of pulling your windows license key out of your account - if it wasn't for the fact that it pulled some random Home key, not my Pro key. Now it's waiting time again.

Anyway, thanks to you all for your help.

 

[SmokeRngs]

Well, what if you have multiple drive partitions on your NVMe drive? Or more than one NVMe drive? Are you supposed to open up your case and disconnect all your non-OS SATA drives? Seems impractical to me.

Me, I always work carefully to rename the target partition for the reinstall something to "INSTALLTARGET" before doing the reinstall. That way it's pretty clear where to do a fresh install or even a repair install.

If it's Windows, yes, always disconnect every single drive that isn't the drive the OS is being installed to. Windows has been notorious for decades for randomly putting bits of absolutely necessary boot data on different drives if more than one drive is connected at the time of installation. It makes no sense and shouldn't happen but it's been a problem for decades.

It doesn't matter how drives are named or how easy it is to tell them apart. Telling Windows to install on a specific drive does not mean Windows will put the required boot data on that drive if more than one drive is in the system. It will install the actual OS to that drive but not necessarily the boot data. Sometimes Windows will do it and you're good and sometimes it won't do it and you don't notice because the drive it put the boot data on is still in the system and connected the whole time so it's never noticed.

 

[uOpt]

If it's Windows, yes, always disconnect every single drive that isn't the drive the OS is being installed to. Windows has been notorious for decades for randomly putting bits of absolutely necessary boot data on different drives if more than one drive is connected at the time of installation. It makes no sense and shouldn't happen but it's been a problem for decades.

It doesn't matter how drives are named or how easy it is to tell them apart. Telling Windows to install on a specific drive does not mean Windows will put the required boot data on that drive if more than one drive is in the system. It will install the actual OS to that drive but not necessarily the boot data. Sometimes Windows will do it and you're good and sometimes it won't do it and you don't notice because the drive it put the boot data on is still in the system and connected the whole time so it's never noticed.

This is also how I got into this mess in the first place. I cloned my boot drive. Booted from the clone, messed with the partitions on the clone only., while the original boot drive was reachable. Both Windows installs were destroyed into not being bootable.

 

[bluestang]

Have you made sure the drive you are trying to install to is free of any partitions, especially hidden ones? I've ran into occasions where there was issues trying to install Windows 10 on a drive that already had Windows 10 installed. Just another thought. And absolutely only 1 drive attached for install like others have said.

 

[philb2]

If it's Windows, yes, always disconnect every single drive that isn't the drive the OS is being installed to. Windows has been notorious for decades for randomly putting bits of absolutely necessary boot data on different drives if more than one drive is connected at the time of installation. It makes no sense and shouldn't happen but it's been a problem for decades.

So what are you supposed to do? Change all partitions to something Windows won't recognize? How,assuming you have MiniTool?

I understand the issue of Windows dropping crap on other drives, but how-in-hell am I supposed to do that? Backup ALL other partitions,wipe the drives to unformatted state, then do the install, and the restore all partitions? What if all I have is multiple partitions on just one NVMe in my laptop?

This is a complete, utter shitshow, as someone else commented.

It doesn't matter how drives are named or how easy it is to tell them apart. Telling Windows to install on a specific drive does not mean Windows will put the required boot data on that drive if more than one drive is in the system. It will install the actual OS to that drive but not necessarily the boot data. Sometimes Windows will do it and you're good and sometimes it won't do it and you don't notice because the drive it put the boot data on is still in the system and connected the whole time so it's never noticed.

That is f'ing crazy.

 

[SmokeRngs]

So what are you supposed to do? Change all partitions to something Windows won't recognize? How,assuming you have MiniTool?

I understand the issue of Windows dropping crap on other drives, but how-in-hell am I supposed to do that? Backup ALL other partitions,wipe the drives to unformatted state, then do the install, and the restore all partitions? What if all I have is multiple partitions on just one NVMe in my laptop?

This is a complete, utter shitshow, as someone else commented.

That is f'ing crazy.

You don't do anything with partitions. You disconnect any drive that isn't the drive you're installing Windows on and booting from. When the installation is done the other drives get hooked back up.

 

[uOpt]

Have you made sure the drive you are trying to install to is free of any partitions, especially hidden ones? I've ran into occasions where there was issues trying to install Windows 10 on a drive that already had Windows 10 installed. Just another thought. And absolutely only 1 drive attached for install like others have said.

I installed now. Existing partitions on the install target drive played no role.

However, the MS Media Creation Tool that makes a USB stick doesn't work right if the USB stick already contains an installer. If that is the case then the tool complains that the target drive is too small, taking the size of the existing ISO, not the size of the drive. Example: I had a 32 GB stick with a 5 GB ISO on it. I had to format the stick to have a 32 GB FAT partition to be able to write to it with the Media Creation Tool.

As we said, total shitshow...

 

[Nobu]

So what are you supposed to do? Change all partitions to something Windows won't recognize?

You can, and I have done that, using gparted on a livecd iirc. But if you can easily disconnect the drive physically, that is the better way. Edit: might have been fdisk/gdisk, not sure if gparted will do it without also formatting.

 

[Dreamerbydesign]

Wait..
"USB thumb drive with the ISO"
How did you make the Bootable USB?
The MS media creation tool doesn't put the iso in the USB drive (should be a .esd file I think)

This. If you used the app to create the bootable usb drive, it will be proper. If OP used another app like Rufus or etcher, and made a usb from the iso, there cou

Oh what a shitshow.

Win10's installer refuses to install to the NVMe M.2, which is in the second slot on my mobo because "the system may not be able to boot from it". Never mind it has booted from there for years. Had to remove the graphics card again to reach the first slot. In the processes of this so-called install I have taken my computer pretty much completely apart.

Apparently you are now forced to log in with a MSN ID, otherwise you cannot proceed with install.

That seems to have the intended benefit of pulling your windows license key out of your account - if it wasn't for the fact that it pulled some random Home key, not my Pro key. Now it's waiting time again.

Anyway, thanks to you all for your help.

huh? In 30 years building computers I’ve never had this many issues installing windows. Probably 300+ machine or more, windows 3.0 to present.

What is this about MSN Id sign in?if you mean your Microsoft account, that can be bypassed on install. And even if it’s not bypassed and you do logging to a legitimate account, you should notice where a key tied to your account came from.

Honestly this is all very hard to follow, and the way I read it, not very logical.

As far as windows 11, the requirements are not difficult besides having a cpu that is a required gen, and a tpm capable motherboard.

If you REALLY want windows 11 just use Rufus to write the w11 iso (from the Microsoft website) and just check off the boxes to have Rufus remove the tpm requirement, and online requirement if you’d like, and create a local account. It’s not very difficult and there are tutorials online explaining this.

 

[Dreamerbydesign]

I installed now. Existing partitions on the install target drive played no role.

However, the MS Media Creation Tool that makes a USB stick doesn't work right if the USB stick already contains an installer. If that is the case then the tool complains that the target drive is too small, taking the size of the existing ISO, not the size of the drive. Example: I had a 32 GB stick with a 5 GB ISO on it. I had to format the stick to have a 32 GB FAT partition to be able to write to it with the Media Creation Tool.

As we said, total shitshow...

Not really a shit show. Read the directions and follow them. If using the media creation tool (or Rufus or Balena Etcher) you will get a warning stating it will erase ALL CONTENTS AND PARTITIONS and is to be used for that single install. You are trying to do things the software specifies it won’t do, and then complaining about it. Follow what the software says and it works.

If you want multiple installers on one USB stick check out Ventoy. It’s free and open source and does this easily. It however isn’t always reliable or compatible with all bios’es

 

[pendragon1]

pebcaks...

 

[philb2]

I installed now. Existing partitions on the install target drive played no role.

Which is not what other posters in this thread have said.

However, the MS Media Creation Tool that makes a USB stick doesn't work right if the USB stick already contains an installer. If that is the case then the tool complains that the target drive is too small, taking the size of the existing ISO, not the size of the drive. Example: I had a 32 GB stick with a 5 GB ISO on it. I had to format the stick to have a 32 GB FAT partition to be able to write to it with the Media Creation Tool.

Poor design.

As we said, total shitshow...

+1

You can, and I have done that, using gparted on a livecd iirc. But if you can easily disconnect the drive physically, that is the better way. Edit: might have been fdisk/gdisk, not sure if gparted will do it without also formatting.

So what do you change the partitions to, so that the Windows installer stays away?

 

[pendragon1]

So what do you change the partitions to, so that the Windows installer stays away?

you disconnect ALL drives but the os target drive. then you clean the drive of all partitions and then let windows installer create what it needs all on the os disk. load windows and then connect your other drives. this is pretty basic knowledge for building systems...

 

[philb2]

you disconnect ALL drives but the os target drive

My system is very heavy, with an AIO water cooler for the CPU. Plus 4 3.5" drives,heavy,in a heavy case. Hard to lift up, at my age, which is mumblydy, whattleby years. Not someth8ing I want to do very often.

. then you clean the drive of all partitions and then let windows installer create what it needs all on the os disk. load windows and then connect your other drives. this is pretty basic knowledge for building systems...

So need several large USB backup drives, and lots of time, even with Macrium imaging.

 

[pendragon1]

My system is very heavy, with an AIO water cooler for the CPU. Plus 4 3.5" drives,heavy,in a heavy case. Hard to lift up, at my age, which is mumblydy, whattleby years. Not someth8ing I want to do very often.

So need several large USB backup drives, and lots of time, even with Macrium imaging.

what the hell are you even talking about?
you just disconnect the drives, you dont have haul your tower anywhere.
wat?!

im starting to feel like neither of you should be doing this...

 

[philb2]

what the hell are you even talking about?
you just disconnect the drives, you dont have haul your tower anywhere.
wat?!

I'm taling about all the non-OS partitions in my NVMe drive, which is 1 TB, and which I plan to upgrade soon to 4 TB to eliminate another spinner.

im starting to feel like neither of you should be doing this...

Uh, I've been doing my own sw builds since 1985, back when you got a stack of 1.2 MB high-density floppy disks. And hardware builds since about 1990. If i didn't take seriously the issue of a Windows install crapping over other partitions, I would blithely just skip this thread. But I do respect all the knowledgeable IT professionals who contribute to this forum. I'm jsut trying to work out a way to follow their advice that works for me.

 

[uOpt]

What is this about MSN Id sign in?if you mean your Microsoft account, that can be bypassed on install. And even if it’s not bypassed and you do logging to a legitimate account, you should notice where a key tied to your account came from.

I assure you, if you make a USB thumb stick with the creation tool today the install will only go through if you log in with a MS account. I looked very carefully at the very simple modal dialog box.

 

[pendragon1]

I assure you, if you make a USB thumb stick with the creation tool today the install will only go through if you log in with a MS account. I looked very carefully at the very simple modal dialog box.

that only applies to home and you can bypass it with one command prompt line. leave it disconnected and when it get to the "connect to internet" screen press shift+f10, type oobe\bypassnro and hit enter. it will reboot and when you get back to the connect screen it will have a "i dont have internet" button.