Windows 7 - CD/DVD Driver missing on install

I had all the same problems and did all the procedures such has burning at different speeds, burning with different software, reformatting the hard, and low-level formats. Even tried different brand of dvd-r's. After spending almost 2 days tiring to get it to install, I realized that I was burring the ISO files with a recently new laptop with a much faster dvd-rw, so I went and purchased a new dvd-rw upgrading from a 24x read speed to a 48x read speed and it work just like it was supposed to with no problems. I also had some friends and family who had the same problem with there installations and it didn't seem to matter if it was 32bit or 64bit windows 7, and after sharing my experience with them it worked out the same for them. I just figured I would post here to help who could with this info, knowing how frustrating it can be.

Installing Windows 7 Intel Schroeder Town G33 Motherboard in my Gateway GM5638E PC. During install the installer kept prompting for a missing device driver. I tried downloading drivers...etc...but lets get to the fix.

After trying every driver here's how I fixed it:
Removed Sony DVD IDE Drive that was in my PC
Install a SATA DVD Drive
Configure a 4GB USB drive to install Win 7 from
(follow these easy steps: Installing Windows 2008 via USB thumbdrive « jesscoburn.com
Boot from USB drive and 7 installs perfectly...didn't need any other drivers.

My daughter got Windows 7 Pro (released version) from her university. This problem caused me to spend 16 hours on labor day weekend to upgrade Vista home to Windows 7 Pro 64 Bit on her Dell Vostro 1400 - I had expected to be done within the hour.

The problem turned out be bad DVDs. Finally succeeded by creating a bootable USB - followed the steps using diskpart.exe (Google) to make a 4GB USB key bootable and extracted the files using Wizip 12 (download, use Eval mode if don't have it) from the ISO.

Some observations
- If you do not regularly burn DVDs; a bad install DVD is very likely the problem. I had 3 laptops with DVD RW drives, but had never used any of them to burn a DVD. So using Office Depot and Imation media with ever slower write speed on each of them resulted in quite a collection - all with the same 'Missing CD/DVD' message.

- ACPI/ATA and other cable/controller solutions are red herrings that I should have been discounted early. The HDD and DVD worked without any problems with Vista, so why would they conflict all of a sudden (without any BIOS change). I guess folks probably attribute solution to last thing tried whenever they use a 'good' DVD!

- Early on spent many hours looking for x64 drivers for DVD drives, then doing firmware upgrades on the DVD drives. How install media errors result in 'missing CD/DVD driver' messge is a mystery only Microsoft knows, but is sure to send a lot of PC 'experts' on a wild goose hunt.

- I should have paused to think how can the install package boot from the DVD, yet not have a DVD driver. Windows 7 is very good at going out to the Internet and getting up to date drivers. So one would assume that if system is able to boot using generic DVD driver, it would likely proceed to complete installation and then look for better driver than stop install.

Mercifully folks who would obtain a MS/OEM manufactured OS DVD would not have this problem. But it is surprising that the installer for such a sophisticated product representing millions of dollars and man hours does not do an integrity check on the install media/package before merrily proceeding and emitting misleading errors.

spm7
aurora, IL

"- ACPI/ATA and other cable/controller solutions are red herrings that I should have been discounted early. The HDD and DVD worked without any problems with Vista, so why would they conflict all of a sudden (without any BIOS change). I guess folks probably attribute solution to last thing tried whenever they use a 'good' DVD! "

I had to remove my IDE DVD-RW drive before even my bootable USB drive would install Windows 7 on my computer. As long as that drive was connected, it would continuously ask for drivers. The install process has a bug with some IDE / SATA combo boards. I didn't have a SATA DVD drive when I was installing, so I created a bootable USB drive and tried to install that way. I should have mentioned that.

Also, like others I had changed my SATA RAID to AHCI. I have since went back WITH THE SAME DVD and re-installed Windows 7 from my SATA DVD drive onto my RAID partition and did not need any drivers. It was as smooth as the USB Bootable disk.

HELPFUL TIP: If you make a USB bootable thumb drive and you want the isntall to display ALL the versions of 7 on that media, there is a file you remove. On the USB Device, goto \sources folder and find the file called EI.CFG. Delete this file and you will then be prompted to select which version of Windows 7 you wish to install. Please note that x86 and x64 media only contain bit specific versions.

I burned the DVD several times at the slowest speed and with data verification on the bit count is the same on both the DVD and file version of Windows 7 RC. Is there ever anything simple on a Windows machine? Some folks recommended putting the install file on an 8 gig thumb drive and adding all the drivers. That may be OK for the Windows gurus among us, but can't they just make it simple? If the need drivers to install RC they should supply them. My computer blew up two weeks ago and I have been trying to install 7RC on a new drive ever since. I guess I will have to wait another week for the released version.... but will it work then? I have nothing but a new drive. Oh gee, no, it needs an installed version of Windows to work.

Sorry!, I feel much better now.
Chuck

I just purchased a real copy of Windows 7 for a customer... not sure what release # but it came out on Oct. 22nd - the official release date.

Same problem with dvd driver missing. Attempted swapping out dvd drives. Created, copied, and booted to USB hard drive for installation with dvd drive unhooked... SAME ERROR. Why oh why does Windows need a dvd driver for a piece of hardware that isn't even connected? or a piece of hardware running the installation already??

Hope this gets resolved soon...

Same here. I just received my upgrade disks, and I'm trying to do an upgrade installation. It's telling me there are no device drivers found, but it's already booted up from cd once.

any solutions here?

ETA: I backed out of the installation and went into the bios and everything was ok, did not make any changes.
Windows restarted again UPGRADING.

Then I got another error message saying to run the chkdisk utility and when I cliked ok, it went on to expanding the files.

After 3 days of re-downloading and re-burning and constant failures I came across your forum. After reading here I didconnected my Sony DRU-830A DVD burner (which I was attempting to install with) and replaced it with my cheap SATA dvd reader. I am still installing to the same IDE hard drive. No more errors and the install flew right along. For some reason it did not like my IDE DVD burner as an install device. I hope this helps!

The best I can explain this is at boot both or all buses are working but when the install shell starts up it turns back to a generic IDE driver that SATA work with but only the first two devices on the first bus. This can happen with your dvd drive is master or slave on the secondary bus or 3rd or 4th port SATA. If you can move the SATA or IDE cd /dvd drive back to the slave spot on the primary bus this won't happen. I know that someone here bought a SATA drive thinking it solved the problem but it only put the install DVD on the second port same as slave primary bus. As the install continues the right drivers for your system do get loaded and all your SATA and IDE ports work. My best guess and it has solved this problem every time

dss

Just to add my experience. Same problem with 2 CD/DVD IDE drives. Took a SATA DVD drive from a newer computer and it worked first time.

I am guessing that once all updates are done that it might work in the future, but for now I'm not going there!!

Cheers, Alan