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A bootable USB flash drive requires a driver. What to do if you get a "Required media driver not found" error when installing Windows


An error when it says “the required media driver was not found during installation” can confuse not only inexperienced users, since the text of the message does not clearly indicate the type of problem. The article will help shed light on the cause of the problem and possible ways to eliminate it.

You should be a little happy, since usually such an error occurs as a result of minor problems, sometimes failure, but only of the media itself. The HDD or SSD drive itself does not have a problem.

Causes of the problem

There are several key options that cause the "Windows 7 required media driver not found" error to appear.

  • Lack of USB 0 support;
  • Crooked content recording or any system problems;
  • The media itself is faulty.

All problems exist, but they are very easily eliminated. Perhaps by looking at the key list of failures, you can immediately pay attention to the correct item, otherwise you should alternately perform diagnosis and subsequent solution.

USB 3.0 standard is not supported

Despite the abundance of USB 3.0, this was not always the case. It is in Windows 7 that there is no built-in support for this format yet. In fact, this is exactly what becomes the problem, so you can easily change the connector of the connected flash drive to 2.0 and the problem will disappear. You can usually tell by the color of the connector.

There is a more severe type of failure when there are simply no ports with the old format on the laptop. That is, all USB ports are 3.0 and they are simply not able to correctly handle the installation of Windows 7. Here you can use several basic methods that will allow you to return the drive to correct processing.

  • The first and easiest option for recreating 3.0 support is to simply load the drivers onto the drive and specify the path to them. You should download the appropriate drivers from the manufacturer's website; they may be included with the chipset. Then add working files to the drive, this should be a folder or several files like inf, sys, etc. If you have the exe version, you must first install it, and then find it and write it to the drive. After recording, when an error appears, simply specify the path to the partition on the device;
  • The next current method is to change the BIOS settings. Thus, at the software level, you can replace USB 0 with 2.0. This option may not work if you have USB 3.1. You should go to UEFI by pressing Del or F10. Now look for the “System configuration” tab at the top. Now you need to change the “USB 3.0 configuration...” parameter to the “Disabled” position;

  • Another option is to add USB 0 support to your Windows distribution. This method is quite complicated and requires skills in the software environment. Due to its difficult availability, we will not consider this option; as an alternative, you can simply download the Windows 7 image immediately with this function;
  • If it is not important for you to install Windows 7, then you can download the Windows 8 distribution kit, which is styled like version 7, there will be practically no obvious difference.

I think the error Windows installation did not find the required media driver specifically for this reason should be resolved fully.

System failures when recording the system

Absolutely any drive, and therefore the user, can be subject to a similar problem. Usually the problem is at some stage of recording or creating a Windows distribution.

In general, the malfunction most often manifests itself at 3 levels:

  • Broken, incorrect system image;
  • The recording program has failed;
  • Outdated information on the drive;

Here, the Windows 10 error “The required media driver was not found” is considered from the perspective of the assumption that the drive itself is working.

To fix the problem, you should first advise downloading images from the official Microsoft website. Since often amateurs with their repacks make a lot of noise and change critical system parameters, which leads to failures, it is better to trust the official developer. It is also possible that there was simply a problem loading Windows files.

Next, if you created a disk or flash drive using UltraISO, then it is better to change the program. A worthy representative, although less functional, is WinSetupFromUSB. In it you need to set several basic parameters for recording and the action will be performed independently.

Sometimes, for unknown reasons, when a disk has been lying around for a long time, it may have problems reading it, even though there is no external damage. A failure can also occur when burning is not completely completed or the disk has some problems. It's better to use another disk or flash drive.

Equipment is faulty

The last obvious problem is when the flash drive, external screw or disk is simply faulty. At the same time, on other devices, they are sometimes processed correctly. Discs especially suffer from such vibrations. Obviously, you can determine the serviceability of the equipment if you replace it with something else and record the installation distribution again.

Another common reason is the drive, since it is already outdated and most of them have not been used for years, obviously its technical condition is worsening. Over time, the laser becomes less sensitive and can cause various problems.

Sometimes the flash drive itself can cause problems, because it also fails. You can try to bring it back to life using programs like Flash Drive Recovery.

Using all the presented methods in turn, you can get rid of the annoying problem and calmly install a new operating system, without wasting extra effort and nerves.

If you still have questions on the topic “What to do if the error “The required media driver was not found” occurred when installing Windows?”, you can ask them in the comments


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Programmers are known to be lazy people, like most people. When a program is developed, exceptional situations must be worked out, for example, a file is accidentally deleted/damaged, there is no access to the Internet, the mouse, keyboard, encoding are broken, new devices, connectors, Friday the 13th... whatever.

And for each case, programmers need to write a window or in some other way notify the user that something went unplanned, and also make sure that the error is correctly understood by the user (But we already have problems explaining to users programmers).

We all understand perfectly well that such an activity is very tedious and you can make a mistake; you can simply not take into account the probability of the coincidence of several events or the emergence of new devices.

This is the kind of mistake, if you can call it a mistake, that the developers of the Windows 7 installation process made.

What did they do and what did they forget?

They created an incorrect message for the user about what happened wrong. Instead of writing a message saying that there is no necessary driver for the device from which you are trying to install the Windows operating system. The one who wrote the driver error message thought that everyone would install Windows 7 only from an optical disc. But what about the ability to install from a USB flash drive? But what about those users who install from a card reader and other external devices? What's the result? And in the end this is what:

Error: optical drive driver not found when installing Windows 7 from a USB flash drive

But, starting with Windows 8.1, the developers corrected themselves and this error window was slightly redone.

The required driver for the optical drive was not found in Windows 8.1 and Windows 10

But again, in what form should this driver be? And where can I get it?

If during the installation of Windows 7, and most likely in later versions, you encounter such a message during installation, then here is what you need to analyze first:

  1. What device is the installation from? Possible options CD\DVD, Flash, Usb-HDD (External HDD via USB)
  2. If it is a USB device, what USB port is it plugged into? Possible options . or USB 3.0. (More details about USB 2.0\3.0 connectors below.)

What is the difference between USB 2.0/3.0?

To distinguish these two USB connectors, just look at the picture below. We would like to draw your attention to the fact that USB 3.0 is usually highlighted in blue, in contrast to the white USB 2.0.

Visual difference between USB 2.0 and USB 3.0

If your laptop or computer does not have USB 2.0 connectors (and if they do exist, it is better to insert the installation flash drive into them), and all of the available ones are USB 3.0 connectors, then you need to download the driver for the latter, since at the time of the release of the Windows 7 operating system, driver support in There was no installation image.

To download the required driver, you first need a motherboard. After that, go to the drivers section on the manufacturer’s official website, find your board there and download the USB 3.0 driver and you may need an ACHI driver. (hard drive controller).

Selecting the official website of the motherboard to download the necessary drivers

You can, of course, try downloading a more recent version of Windows 7 with the latest updates; perhaps they added support for USB 3.0 drivers to the installation image itself.

There is a driver, what should I do?

If you managed to find the drivers, then you need to unpack them, write them to any flash drive, insert them into USB and indicate them in the “Load driver” window using the browse button. But here, too, it may not be possible without adventure. You will most likely first be pleased with this message:

Error loading driver during windows installation

Then click “OK” and then click the “Repeat search” button.

Specifying a USB 3.0 driver when installing windows

What to do if all of the above does not help?

If the above does not help, then you can:

  1. Try using a different device for installation, try burning to another disk (It is recommended to use DVD-R, CD-R and it is better not to use rewritable RW disks to install Windows at all), write installation files from the image at minimum speed.
  2. When installing from a flash drive, try inserting it into all USB connectors. It's very likely that one of them will work.
  3. Check the integrity of the installation image, download again, take another image.
  4. Use verified operating system images. It is recommended to use official images downloaded from official sources.
  5. Format the flash drive according to the Windows installation recommendations.
  6. Use another program to write the image to the drive (For example, Novicorp WinToFlash or )
  7. For those who install an operating system via a DVD or CD drive, in some cases cleaning the disk drive laser helps.
  8. You can try Ahci/IDE modes
  9. If you have a laptop manufactured in 2016 or later and you are trying to install Windows 7 on it, then most likely you will not be able to do this in any of the ways described above, simply because it is optimized to work only with Windows 10 and most likely the version.

When trying to install Windows 10 or 8 on a computer/laptop, you may receive an error: The required media driver was not found. This could be a DVD drive, USB drive, or hard drive driver; The required driver for the optical drive was not found. If you have a floppy disk, CD, DVD, or USB flash drive with a driver, insert that media. Since Microsoft does not like to complicate its life by trying to explain in more detail the cause of the failure, a novice user may assume that the installer is swearing at the hard drive or SSD where the operating system is installed directly. In most of these cases, it's not them at all. If you've encountered any of the above-mentioned errors, this guide will help you sort them out.

Below is a list of methods to help you figure out how to fix error The required media driver was not found.

  1. The reason this error appears during the installation of Windows 8/8.1 from a flash drive is that the OS installer does not support USB 3.0 drivers.
  2. A failure in the process of preparing to install Windows 10 or 8 with the subsequent appearance of an error may occur due to a damaged DVD disc, a long interval between periods of its use, or due to a failure of the drive. In this case, you should try installing Windows from a flash drive.
  3. In some cases, the error The required driver for the optical drive was not found appears when installing the system from a bootable USB drive created by third-party software. To fix the bug, just write the OS installation files to removable media using another program from the instructions.
  4. If you suspect that the USB drive is faulty, you should replace it with another one. If it is fully working, but an error still appears during installation, then you can try.
  5. Another reason for failure during preparation for OS installation is a damaged Windows ISO image. In this situation, you need to re-download the file and create a bootable drive. More details about this are written in a separate manual.

Root cause of error: Required media driver not found when installing Windows 8

Since the Windows 8 and 8.1 installer does not support USB 3.0 drivers, when installing the OS from a flash drive connected to the port of this version or simply supporting this specification, the error The required media driver was not found appears. You can eliminate it in one of the following ways:

  1. Connect the drive to a USB 2.0 port (no blue marking).
  2. Burn the OS image to a flash drive that supports the USB 2.0 specification.
  3. If you don't have USB 2.0-supporting media on hand, download USB 3.0 drivers from the motherboard or laptop manufacturer's website. They may be included in the drivers for the chipset. Next, place them unpacked on the media. That is, as a folder with files in inf, sys and other formats, and not as an installation file with the exe extension. During the system installation process, click on the button Review and specify the directory containing the drivers.
  4. Integrate USB 3.0 drivers into the Windows 8/8.1 image.

Required optical drive driver not found when installing from DVD

Most often, the culprit for the error: The required driver for optical disks was not found when preparing to install Windows from a disk is damaged media and, less often, a DVD drive that does not read it well. And it is not at all necessary that the flaws be visually visible. One way or another, you should try to create a new Windows boot disk, or use a flash drive or a separate hard drive partition to install the system. You can find out using special instructions.

Using other software to burn a bootable USB drive

In some cases, a message about the absence of a media driver may appear during the installation of Windows 10 and 8 from a USB drive due to files incorrectly written to it using a third-party program. If an unsuccessful attempt was made to create a multiboot flash drive, it is worth recording one version of the system on a removable device, instead of several. If you have already done this, but the error does not disappear, you should consider using another program for . For example, Rufus.

Problems with bootable USB flash drive

If the advice from the previous method does not have a positive effect, you can try to change the flash drive to another one or check the existing one for the presence of several partitions. If they are contained on it, they must be removed using the instructions.

Additional Information

Sometimes the problem may be a damaged ISO image. In such a situation, it is worth downloading it again and creating a bootable USB flash drive to install Windows. .

Hello everyone, it’s been 2 days since Windows 10 came out... But nothing goes smoothly for Microsoft... At first, I forced them to come...

And while I was downloading all the updates, the netbook ran out of memory, so I couldn’t put it there. But I never give up! I downloaded the oem image, started installing... And during the installation I encountered the error ““, then my patience ran out, I’ve seen this error several times already, I decided to deal with it once and for all!

6 Ways to Solve “Device Drivers Not Found” Error

1. Method:

Always insert the flash drive into USB 2.0. The external difference between usb 2.0 and usb 3.0 is color. USB 2.0 is black and USB 3.0 is blue. Insert into usb 2.0 and try installing again.

2. Method:

There is also a glitch. If you inserted into 2.0, just insert into another usb 2.0 (if you have several of them)

3. Method:

Try it, this method helped me a lot, I even recorded it on usb 3.0 (but inserted it into 2.0), I assume that the flash drive I recorded it on was more modern.

4. Method:

Try and boot from DVD-Rom

5. Method:

This is the final method, installation from Windows.

First, download the official drivers for the chipset of your motherboard or your laptop from the official website. Next, we write to the flash drive and when an error appears, click review.

Select the flash drive on which you recorded the downloaded drivers. And look for the following path: \drivers\WIN7(for me it looks like this Chipset_Intel_9.4.4.1006_W81x64\drivers\WIN7)

After searching (it can take 10 minutes)

A list of drivers will appear:

Let's try each one in turn. They should come. I get it every once in a while. So it might not work. But I’ll say one thing for sure, I succeeded this way.