Windows 7 - Win 7 setup & requires drivers

Alright, so here I am, enjoying some new PC parts I bought (hey, an upgrade is an upgrade) and now I am trying to install Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit (maybe the whole problem for me?). Anyway, my Motherboard is ECS GF8100VM-M5, AMD Athlon II X2 at 2,8 GHz is my CPU, ATI Radeon HD 3450 GPU (old I know, but will upgrade soon, whenever that might be), 4 GB DDR2 RAM, some old Samsung HDD (320 GB). I am trying to install Windows 7 trough USB (a SanDisk Cruzer Blade, 4 GB). Now, whenever I hit Install now button, after Setup is Preparing... text is gone, I get greeted with "Setup requires missing DVD/CD device drivers" or something like that along the lines. Now, I did download Chipset & RAID (under RAID tab, from Downloads) from the ECS website to my 2nd USB, but nothing. I did try disabling IDE controllers, enabling them, use SATA, RAID and ACHI modes under BIOS, but still nothing.

Any help guys? I am almost at the edge of scratching my own hair out. Also, I am going to buy a SATA DVD-R tomorrow and see whats what when trying to install from a DVD.

That message commonly appears when the Windows 7 installation files are corrupt.

What source are you using for the files on your USB drive?

What you mean? Do you mean what Win 7 installation I am using and from where? Its either been my retail Win 7 DVD converted to ISO using UltraISO then written on the USB stick by the same program, a friends DVD or a ISO downloaded from the internet.

In that case try writing the ISO to flash stick using Universal USB Installer with Windows 7 in dropdown menu.

If it fails, extract the ISO again using ImgBurn.

All modern controller drivers are in the installer. The error is, as stated, almost always a bad installer.

Tried the Universal USB Installer, but once I select my USB device from the boot menu, all I see is a white underscore constantly flashing and nothing else.

Is this a retail DVD which has booted before to successfully install? What's the exact version and bit-rate?

Try extracting the ISO again with ImgBurn.

Wipe the flash stick first: Diskpart Clean Command

Make sure to tick the box to Format Flash Stick.

Set HD first to boot in BIOS.

Then boot stick using One-time BIOS Boot Menu key.

I am currently on a computer (which is very, very old computer) that has Win XP installed, so that might have been a reason for all the failures so far, perhaps? Because what you suggested to do gregrocker is now out of the question.

In that case run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor which will tell you with certainty whether Windows 7 can run on your hardware and with your software.

If so you can also try creating a partition to try Windows 7 in a Dual Boot. Doing this you can run the Windows 7 Setup file from XP, choose the new partition for install: Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP.

If Windows 7 doesn't work well with your hardware or software, or you don't like it for some other reason, you can then delete it in Disk Management.

No, no, no, no. The other computer can run Windows 7 with no problem. Its that the current computer I am behind and from which I am writing from has Windows XP installed.

Also note, that the computer I am trying to install Windows 7 on has nothing installed at the moment, completly wiped clean.

Universal USB Installer should work from XP. Click Format first.

If that fails, wipe the stick first using free Partition Wizard.