CD/DVD Driver missing on install

[jamessr]

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.

 

[cbf87]

Fixed

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.

 

[spm7]

98% It is a bad DVD from downloaded ISO

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

 

[cbf87]

"- 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.

 

[Chiocciman]

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

 

[dr17pepper]

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...

 

[keeners]

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.

 

[Lurrch]

Easy fix for me!

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!

 

[dss6776]

Missing dvd driver

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

 

[saintalan]

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

 

[livinginkaos]

OK, this is a problem with most Gateways and a few others. There is an issue with the bus not the drives, but there is a simple work around. Without getting into a long detailed post (since you can find out how to perform what's needed on the net) here you go:

1. Create a BOOTABLE 4GB or Larger Flash Drive - See Method 6 on this page Boot From A USB Flash Drive
2. COPY the entire DVD to the flash drive
3. Change your Bios to boot from USB
4. Reboot

Now, I had one friend who's machine's bios said it did not allow to boot from USB, but still created the flash and started the install from the dvd, but when it got to the point of needing the driver, it continued from the flash drive....

After the install is complete, change your boot order back if you like.

 

[t41]

same problem here, but my big problem is after I get it installed and the dvd rom drives are showing, they soon disappear after I install updates. They also do not show in bios either after this point. The only way I can re see them is to unplug power cord from pc to reset bios "I Assume" and then i have to boot up again.
This is ame version from july 7600 RTM I've been using all along with no problems. I did a repair and this happened , so I did a comp[lete reinstall, same thing again. I am reburning iso to see if maybe something went wrong, but dont think so since problem happened after install not during. Yeah it's a DELL as well. Going to delete and reformat partition again, will post results when able.

Very Frustrated at this point.

 

[sansam]

The problem with .iso

I had wasted lot of time with the DVD driver error that others have encountered. I confirm that it is .iso image issue. just check the original iso file size and downloaded. win7x64 final oem is about 2.8GB. When people upload ISO because of the size it could get uploaded with errors. Also it need to be ftp in binary mode.

Luckily I have vmware and it could use the .iso image to install OS. so I knew that the problem was with iso file as when installing it in vmware workstation using .iso file it does not read dvd. (assuming that you have HDD as source).

Before doing anything to buy drivers or try to find drivers, just download a 30 day trail of vmware and try that out. That is File->new->virtual machine ->typical then browse the iso file. If the installtion goes to some extent you could stop it and iso is ok and you could decide to get new DVD or whatever. Otherwise do not waste more time with that ISO file

 

[t41]

I burned new iso and all worked fine for me as well. Although i did have a hall of a time getting my bios to see the drives after the first mess-up. I had to unplug power chord a few times to get it to see them. All is great now.

 

[maximus57]

The Easy Way

Now, I had one friend who's machine's bios said it did not allow to boot from USB, but still created the flash and started the install from the dvd, but when it got to the point of needing the driver, it continued from the flash drive....

Finally, someone hit the simple solution! You don't need to make a bootable usb. You can simply copy the files from the dvd to the root of a usb flash drive or hard drive partion, and use the dvd to boot from. When it would normally give the missing cd/dvd driver message, it finds the files on the usb instead. Intallation continues and windows 7 is installed
(Note that at least in my case the usb drive had to be left in for the first reboot, otherwise it would hang at "completing installation" and the install would fail)

And for those that still get the missing driver error booting from usb, try putting the files on a separtate partion on the hard drive (or on a second hard drive if you have 2). Simply make a small (4GB) logical partion, copy the files there, boot the win7 dvd, and install to the primary partion. Afterwards you can delete the small partion and extend the primary to take the space.

I have tested this on my gateway and it works, from usb flash, usb hard drive, and a logical partion on the same hard drive I was installing to. I will say that I am installing win7 on a logical partition, as my primaries are taken up. So things could go a little different for you, but it should be the same.

 

[fat ramy]

An idea...

I got so annoyed at this issue, I registered to vent my fury!

Upgrading from 32 bit XP to 64 bit 7, doing a clean instal.

I have Windows 7 official disc so it made it even more annoying. Anyway, I also have an IDE DVD/RW and it could not find drivers etc etc.

My way round this was to borrow a friends USB DVD writer and change the boot order in BIOS.

The instal is very slow as it is USB 2, but at least it works!

I hope this is useful to y'all.

It could be an issue with IDE optical drives or whatever. Or just that my PC is ancient.

"I had to borrow my friends gear and spend 8 hours problemsolving, I'm a PC and Windows 7 was my idea!"

 

[qternocq]

vLite

Hey guys,

I just want to add another solution.

If you have used vLite to trim your windows 7 installation, please note that this application will remove setup.exe from the sources folder. When you place this file back onto your new iso (from your original DVD), the error will not bother you anymore.

Dont forget that the file goes into the Sources folder on the root of the DVD. And dont forget the DVD must remain bootable. So copying the files to a disk with windows will not work Try magiciso to alternate a bootable image and add the setup.exe.

None of this is illegal by the way.

 

[alphavillee]

Hi,
I had the same problem with the missing driver and when I burned the DVD again at slower speed it worked for me! I hope it will work for you too Good luck.

 

[Mombodog]

Where did you get the Install disc? Was it a download from Microsoft?

If so see this

Dreaded "A required CD/DVD Drive Device Driver is Missing" window on install

"I guess the moral in this case is to use IE to do the downloads to avoid corrupted files. "

.

 

[Gurkhe]

It's the DVD

Hey,

guess u all know how i reach here..

It has happened to me serveral times before, but with windows xp or vista CD that i downloaded from MSDN (nothing to do from where u downloaded though).

So, the first DVD gave me the famous error of driver for CD/DVD drive .

Then i insert another Disc (win 7) that i setup few other machines before.

Tada.. no problemo.

So, guess it's the DVD disc that's corrupt...

Idk, how, but happens on cheap DVD recorders i guess.. or as far as i have experienced.

Good Luck