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When I go to install Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, I get to the screen to select language, time, and currency, click next and this alert pops up:

Required CD/DVD Drive Device Driver is Missing.

It asks me to insert the disk or browse to find the file. I have no clue what driver it's talking about though. I copied all the drivers from HP onto a USB and none of them were recognized as the proper driver.

I've heard some people say it has to do with the SATA controller or changing BIOS settings to IDE ATA/ATAPI... Not highly hardware inclined here. I went into the BIOS and couldn't find that setting anywhere or any "advanced" menu as some people had mentioned it might be in.

I also found a question on server fault that said to check the .iso hash, but I did that and it was fine. So, I know the file isn't corrupt.

My laptop doesn't have a disk drive but I've tried two methods just in case that was the reason:

  1. I've burnt Windows 7 Ultimate cd and have an external CD/DVD drive (Memorex)
  2. I have a usb flash drive that is formatted to boot Windows 7 using the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool.

Both methods have produced the same outcome. Unfortunately our company doesn't yet have any IT support, we're just starting up. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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  • This is not related to server administration, and should probably go on superuser.com.
    – erjiang
    Commented Feb 13, 2011 at 19:18
  • When you say you put the drivers on a USB, did you put the EXE files directly onto the USB drive? Or did you run the exes on a windows computer, and copy the extracted contents of the EXEs onto the USB drive? Sounds like an Sata driver issue to me
    – Nick
    Commented Feb 13, 2011 at 19:33
  • Oh... I just put the exe files on there. I'll run them first and copy the extracted files. I didn't see any Sata driver in the list provided by HP though.
    – user12834
    Commented Feb 13, 2011 at 20:41
  • There's so many drivers and they don't seem to be extracting when I run them, just installing. Can you point me to the correct driver in the link I provided of HP drivers for my laptop?
    – user12834
    Commented Feb 13, 2011 at 20:47
  • Found the proper SATA driver. It's an exe though, what type of file should I be looking for when I extract the exe?
    – user12834
    Commented Feb 14, 2011 at 5:34

3 Answers 3

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If you are installing Windows from USB and you are using USB3 port on your brand new laptop. You are upsetting Great Mystical Windows Spirit. Insert your USB key to USB2 port and "Missing Required CD/DVD Driver" error will go way. The clue that you are having this problem: when you click browse button and try to expand USB drive you get error that USB drive is not inserted which is strange as you just booted from this USB.

Credit goes to:
When installing: Missing Cd/DVD device driver ("A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing)

SeajayF post

My Dell has USB 3 ports with a Texas Instruments controller. These are not included in the Microsoft Windows preinstall environment and as a result I have the error. So what the error was trying to say is "I cannot access the CD you are trying to install from", when what it is actually referring to is the USB flash drive.

Luckily there was a USB 2 port on the laptop also. When I boot from this port all goes swimmingly. If you don't have a USB 2 port and have a similar problem then you are going to have to customize your Windows PE to include the drivers or alternatively add your USB 3 driver via some other external media device e.g. USB floppy.

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In my case, it turned out I was booting from a “repair” disc and not a “recovery” disc (had not performed a format & re-install since Vista, so I was unaware of the difference).

After several days of fighting the problem, it turned out that the laptop manufacturer (Sony) includes a special boot option (in my case it was activated by pressing F10 during startup) which provides the ability to roll-back the machine to a fresh install of Windows 7, as it was shipped from the manufacturer.

If experiencing the Required CD/DVD Drive Device Driver is Missing error message, you may want to search for restore options provided by your manufacturer. This might be common knowledge for those who have worked with a lot of Windows 7 machines, but I wasted a lot time because I was used to the old format & re-install model.

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It's not a missing device driver like SATA, etc. It means Windows Setup cannot find the installation media/files. Today I tried to install Windows Server 2008 from USB disk, got same error, stupid huh, even I had no DVD on the computer... And I unplugged the USB memory, plugged an external DVD drive then viola! Hey Microsoft! Be smart next time...

Check this link

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