Unable to Successfully Install Windows 7 on Acer X1300

I am unable to upgrade my Acer X1300, which is currently running Windows Vista Home Premium x32, to any Windows 7 variant. When I attempt to do so, I receive the following information upon pressing the "Install Now" button at the main Windows 7 installation menu:

A required CD/DVD device driver is missing. If you have a driver floppy disk, CD, DVD, or USB flash drive, please insert it now.

I am unable to proceed with the installation beyond this point. I've updated Vista with SP2 and all important updates, but to no avail. I have also tried updating the chipset drivers via Acer's website, however that did not seem to make a difference either. I have read many articles and reviews about the X1300 being able to install and run Windows 7 very smoothly, however this does not appear to be the case with my system.

Anyone have any ideas? How should I proceed?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Try this instead.

USB Windows 7 Installation Key Drive - Create

Edit: On second thought, that would probably only help with a clean install.

Did you try putting in the cd that came with your motherboard containing drivers, when it said that?

Or here is a good way to proceed. Extract the contents of the .iso to a folder on your pc and run setup.exe from in there. Maybe work. I dunno.

Aye, I actually followed that exact tutorial and have confirmed my Windows 7 USB drive is 100% working, as used it to install Windows 7 on another desktop of mine. Both the DVD and USB produce the same error message though. Sorry I didn't mention that bit, I forgot.

RESPONSE TO EDIT: No driver CD came with my computer. All of the drivers should be automatically detected by Windows according to Acer, as up until this point that has held completely true, so I have no reason to doubt them.

To upgrade, you have to do it from Windows Vista being booted up. Are you doing it that way or trying to upgrade from booting to installer using bios?

Well, I'm trying to upgrade via the BIOS, however as I said I don't even get the chance to choose between upgrade and full install before I receive the error message I described. I literally boot to the USB drive, click the "Install Now" button, and a few seconds later the message appears. Should I still try via Windows Vista and not indirectly through the BIOS? I don't see what difference that'd make, though.

You must be in Windows Vista to run the installer, in order to upgrade.

If you choose upgrade from the boot to installer method as for a clean install, it will tell you straight out to start over and go into Vista to do this.

So boot to Vista and run setup.exe from the .iso, a dvd, the usb key. Doesn't matter from where. You could even mount the .iso with something like PowerIso and run setup.exe straight from the Virtual DVD Drive.

It's a good idea to end all processes not critical for Windows Vista to run, including antivirus or firewall before you start the setup.exe.

Installing via Windows Vista solved the problem completely. Thanks!

Very welcome! Glad you're up and running on 7.

I have an Acer X1300 as well and I have been trying to install 7 using the Acer Upgrade Wizard sent to me in the "upgrade kit" I received. My current OS is Vista Home Premium 64.

I can only get as far as the screen that asks for my model and it only allows me to select from the notebook list and I can not go to the desktop list, so I can go no further with the install.

I contacted Acer support and was told to do a clean install. I have been using this computer for a couple of months now and it has all of my apps and files on it (new and the ones I transferred from my old machine). Also it is working great.

I think that a clean install is a pretty drastic step for what appears to me to be a failure in the Acer software (Acer Upgrade Wizard).

Would it be possible to install directly from the windows 7 disc without running the upgrade wizard?

Hi everyone, I too have an Acer X1300, came with Vista preinstalled, but me being me put Windows 7 on it straight away and imediately came across some problems with regard to drives. I found out there is an issues with the nvidia chipset and found this hotfix at Microsoft for it. KB976972, this the link to it You encounter problems when you move data over USB from a Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2-based computer that has an NVIDIA USB EHCI chipset and at least 4GB of RAM
It has fixed a couple of issues for me so I hope it helps some others