Question Windows 10 Installation Error - "Missing Drivers"

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Sandolichi

Junior Member
Jul 30, 2019
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I'm having a problem installing Windows 10 on a new PC I just finished building. Windows keeps giving me the dreaded error "a media driver is missing" after I attempt to install. I'm using a USB drive to install the OS. I tried virtually every known solution out there:

- Use a USB 2.0 drive and plug it into a USB 2.0 port.
- Unplug the USB drive after the error is given and then plug it into a different USB port.
- Recreate the installation media and make sure it's not corrupt or missing something.
- Create installation media using Rufus instead of Microsoft's tool.
- Disable USB Legacy and enable AHCI Mode in the BIOS.

None of that worked. There are only two known possible solutions left. Plug the USB drive into a USB 2.0 port in the back of the motherboard rather than the front panel, but my board (Asus x570 TUF Gaming Plus Wifi) doesn't have that so I'm forced to use the ports in the case. The other solution is more like an alternative method, which is using DVD to install the OS. I don't have DVDs and optical drives so that's not an option for me.

Might be relevant to mention that I'm trying to install the OS on a Samsung Evo Plus M.2 drive. It's being detected in the BIOS so that drive shouldn't be the problem I guess.

I would appreciate any help as I'm exhausted and out of ideas.

Full error message:

"A media driver your computer needs is missing. This could be a DVD, USB or Hard disk driver. If you have a CD, DVD or USB flash drive with the driver on it, please insert it now.

Note: If the installation media for Windows is in the DVD drive or on a USB drive, you can safely remove it for this step."
 
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Ajay

Ajay

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Jan 8, 2001
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Sandolichi said:
A media driver your computer needs is missing. This could be a DVD, USB or Hard disk driver. If you have a CD, DVD or USB flash drive with the driver on it, please insert it now.
Click to expand...
Is there a numeric error code as well? Does the install just stop, or are you unable to boot? And lastly, what version of Win10 are you installing?
 
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Sandolichi

Junior Member
Jul 30, 2019
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Ajay said:
Is there a numeric error code as well? Does the install just stop, or are you unable to boot? And lastly, what version of Win10 are you installing?
Click to expand...

No numeric code. The error message pops up and then I'm given the option to browse available devices and their content or cancel the installation process. The USB installation drive is listed but when I manually choose it another message appears saying basically "no drivers found".

I'm certain I'm using the latest version of Win10 though I'm not sure what it's called.
 
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VirtualLarry

VirtualLarry

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Aug 25, 2001
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This can be caused by BIOS options for booting and setup, if they're not set correctly. To install to an M.2 NVMe SSD, try disabling CSM Boot entirely, and enable anything related to NVMe in the boot or drive or SATA options.
 
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Sandolichi

Junior Member
Jul 30, 2019
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deustroop said:
I would try another USB drive. They're cheap to buy if there is not another one available. Ensure to use the media creation tool without Rufus .

https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/software-download/windows10
Click to expand...

The USB stick I'm using is a 16GB SanDisk drive. It's quality. Has served me well for years I don't think going for a cheaper drive would help.

VirtualLarry said:
This can be caused by BIOS options for booting and setup, if they're not set correctly. To install to an M.2 NVMe SSD, try disabling CSM Boot entirely, and enable anything related to NVMe in the boot or drive or SATA options.
Click to expand...

CSM Boot appears to be disabled by default. The Only NVMe option I see is enabling RAID, which isn't relevant.
 
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VirtualLarry

VirtualLarry

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Aug 25, 2001
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Sandolichi said:
CSM Boot appears to be disabled by default. The Only NVMe option I see is enabling RAID, which isn't relevant.
Click to expand...
Are you booting your USB stick in UEFI mode then? If CSM is truely disabled, then that should be the only option for booting the USB stick, but sometimes, you have to hit the hotkey for the BIOS boot menu, and then choose the one labeled with a "UEFI: USB" prefix.
 
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Sandolichi

Junior Member
Jul 30, 2019
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VirtualLarry said:
Are you booting your USB stick in UEFI mode then? If CSM is truely disabled, then that should be the only option for booting the USB stick, but sometimes, you have to hit the hotkey for the BIOS boot menu, and then choose the one labeled with a "UEFI: USB" prefix.
Click to expand...

I did it both ways several times. Made no difference.
 
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Sandolichi

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Jul 30, 2019
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vailr said:
Although Rufus should work if the GPT format is selected, try also:
Etcher
https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/etcher.html
Note: the graphics card must also include a UEFI firmware, which some Radeon VII cards did not include from the factory. A firmware update should be available to flash update those cards.
Click to expand...

Etcher didn't work. It told me I needed a specialized software like Rufus to burn Windows 10 ISO on the USB drive. I went ahead with the process anyway but Etcher failed to validate the drive after mounting the ISO on it; it gave me some "checksum" error. Tried booting from that drive but the system recognized it as a CD/DVD and kept taking me back to the BIOS screen.

Also, my graphics card is actually an RTX 2070. Seems to be fine and is quite unlikely to be the issue.

Ajay said:
This is an interesting thread: https://www.tenforums.com/installat...ws-10-clean-install-missing-media-driver.html
Do you need to install Intel Rapid Storage Driver? I'd think that issue was sorted out by now. Anyway, it looks like you need a chipset of storage driver to be able to move forward.
Sorry for you troubles, but it looks like you are in for more trial and error to get this right.
Click to expand...

I'm trying to install Windows 10 on an AMD platform. Is it even possible to use Intel RTS on it?

Maybe I should include some of my motherboard's drivers on the same USB stick and see if it helps.
 
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vailr

vailr

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Sandolichi said:
I'm trying to install Windows 10 on an AMD platform. Is it even possible to use Intel RTS on it?
Maybe I should include some of my motherboard's drivers on the same USB stick and see if it helps.
Click to expand...

No, the Intel RTS driver would not be of any use in an AMD CPU system.
Yes, try obtaining the latest AMD chipset drivers from the motherboard support site, and copy those to the Windows 10 USB installation thumb drive. Then those AMD drivers can be manually added during the Win 10 installation process.
However, that "lack of proper driver" problem seems kind of unlikely to be the real problem, if using the latest version Win 10 build 1903. Maybe a loose data cable, or something?
 
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Ajay

Ajay

Lifer
Jan 8, 2001
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Sandolichi said:
Etcher didn't work. It told me I needed a specialized software like Rufus to burn Windows 10 ISO on the USB drive. I went ahead with the process anyway but Etcher failed to validate the drive after mounting the ISO on it; it gave me some "checksum" error. Tried booting from that drive but the system recognized it as a CD/DVD and kept taking me back to the BIOS screen.

Also, my graphics card is actually an RTX 2070. Seems to be fine and is quite unlikely to be the issue.



I'm trying to install Windows 10 on an AMD platform. Is it even possible to use Intel RTS on it?

Maybe I should include some of my motherboard's drivers on the same USB stick and see if it helps.
Click to expand...
My bad, meant AMD storage drivers (which just may be in the chipset package) :oops:
 
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Sandolichi

Junior Member
Jul 30, 2019
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Finally. I've just managed to install Windows 10 on the new PC.

I borrowed another USB drive and here's what I did:

- Downloaded the latest Windows 10 ISO (1903).
- Formatted the USB drive to NTFS with an allocation unit size of 8192.
- Used Rufus to mount the ISO on the USB drive.
- Enabled CSM in the BIOS and left the rest of the settings as default.

I'm not really sure what caused the issue. Could have been wrong USB format settings (FAT32 with 4096 allocation unit size) or a defective USB stick corrupted by Linux on my laptop.

Anyway, thank you all for the input, especially deustroop.
 
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vailr

vailr

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
5,365
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Sandolichi said:
Enabled CSM in the BIOS and left the rest of the settings as default.
I'm not really sure what caused the issue. Could have been wrong USB format settings (FAT32 with 4096 allocation unit size) or a defective USB stick corrupted by Linux on my laptop
Click to expand...

The root problem is more likely a mis-match between the USB thumb drive configuration vs. the motherboard bios settings.
CSM disabled would be the preferred setting, in order to have the fastest possible boot time. And instead of using Rufus, use the official Microsoft tool for creating the bootable USB thumb drive.
That way, the USB thumb drive should be able to boot in either bios mode: "CSM disabled" or "CSM enabled".
Rufus can be somewhat tricky to configure correctly.

Note: switching the bios setting to "CSM disabled" would also likely require a complete re-format & re-install of Windows.

What exact motherboard & video card are you talking about?
 
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