Question for the KITAs on a gaming PC build

[G+_Tim Severance]

Question for the KITAs on a gaming PC build....

 

I am working with a new build that uses the Gigabyte GA-AB350M-Gaming 3 motherboard with Sandisk SDSSDA-240G-G26 SSD and a single 8GB stick of DDR4 RAM (2666MHz VIPER) and Windows 10 installer on a Sandisk USB stick where I have tried all the possible USB ports (USB 2.0, USB 3.0, USB 3.1). I have also tried updating the BIOS to the latest version F23d.

 

Every time I try to install Windows, after I click the install button I get a window saying "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." I have tried many different drivers on the DVD disk that came with the motherboard (after transferring the files to a USB stick), but I don't seem to get anywhere.

 

I did jump to a terminal from the Windows installer and verified using diskpart that I could see the SSD and format it as NTFS successfully. I still get the error message though.

 

Can anybody help?

 

Thanks.

Tim

[G+_John Moesner]

You said you just built this computer. Did you get a disc with the motherboard? It could be that you need to load drivers for some chips on the motherboard.

[G+_Black Merc]

First thoughts... Mother board drivers from manufacturers website.(board specific)

Windows drivers are generic but may not work.

[G+_Tim Severance]

John Moesner there is a disc that came with it and I put those files onto a USB to try and load but with the message that pops up it won’t search through all subdirectories it requires me to specify the directory that contains the specific driver and it would take me a full day to manually go and select every driver directory. I tried quite a few for no more than 30 minutes and none of them got me anywhere. Good idea though. I wish there was a way for Windows to tell me what driver is missing.

[G+_Paul Hutchinson]

Never hit that problem myself, perhaps this link will help.

answers.microsoft.com - Windows 10 Clean install - A Media driver your computer needs is - Microsoft Community

[G+_Tailsthefox Pelissier]

Tim that't one of many thing's that can make building an computer an hit or miss. I use to do just that but today because of how much thing's have changed I just by an MAC and install Windows 10 under bootcamp. It's just to bad that apple doesn't offer an DVD or usb key version of OSX; since the Windows 10 install killed MAC OSX so everything in done in Windows 10.

[G+_Michael Whalen Jr]

I have had this happen before keep in mind it's windows 7. When I burn the iso to usb it like it forgets to burn the drivers. What I usually do is get the ISO I need and recreate a usb. That seems to work. I don't know if that's what happening to you. I'm not sure on why it does this. But I was wondering if 10 could do the same thing as the 7 installer. I hope this helps.

[G+_Tim Severance]

Thanks for the responses everybody. As an interesting side note I took the USB installer I made to another P.C. in the house and it did the same thing. So I am thinking it has nothing to do with the new build and has more to do with taking the ISO to USB not getting all the files. I am going to make a DVD installed and see if that acts any different.

[G+_John Sullivan]

Tim Severance My first thought was "How did you create the USB drive that you are using for the Windows install?" Did you use Microsoft's Media Creation Tool or something else?

[G+_Tim Severance]

John Sullivan I have actually done this successfully many times before using MacOS terminal “sudo dd” command.

[G+_Tim Severance]

That was it! Burning the DVD worked. I am interested to find out why the ISO->USB acts any differently than ISO->DVD.

[G+_Ben Reese]

My first thought is an UEFI issue and that may have been your problem with the USB. The Windows Media Creation Tool should handle that, but I've honestly never used it. Typically I just disable UEFI and go on. Maybe I shouldn't admit that ?

[G+_John Moesner]

Tim, it would seem to me that it is telling you which driver is missing, it is the drivers for the sub ports. If you do not have a CD reader, borrow one to load the drivers. The CD normally has an install program that will install all the required drivers. Another option would be to put the CD in a networked pc, share the drive, and then a log to that drive. You can then run the install program from the networked drive.

[G+_Paul Hutchinson]

Tim Severance Did you happen to try the solution at the Microsoft link I posted? That solution is reported to have worked for many users since the days of Windows 7.

[G+_Tim Severance]

Paul Hutchinson yes I did try that and it did not seem to get me any further. I think my problem was with the usb stuck somehow.

[G+_Tailsthefox Pelissier]

Tim Severance The DVDs has MBR and UEFI versions not on the same installer but the USB Versions do have both. Getting an 100% UEFI installer is why i remand getting Windows 10 on DVD .

[G+_Tim Severance]

Tailsthefox Pelissier Thanks. I really don’t know much about MBR and UEFI. I need to study this more. Is there some way I can look on the disk (usb or dvd) to see which they are? What is weird is it booted just fine, it just didn’t seem to find drivers at some point.

[G+_Ben Reese]

I think MBR and GPT are storage related and UEFI is boot control - a replacement for BIOS.

 

Newer motherboards have UEFI enabled by default, but most have a "legacy boot" or "bios" option that can be enabled. Windows is UEFI enabled, but UEFI Windows can only be installed from a UEFI-compatible boot device. Using the Windows Media Creation Tool should do that, but a lot of 3rd party bootable-usb tools don't.

 

Windows - UEFI or not - can be installed to GPT or MBR partitions. MBR is limited to I think 2TB while GPT will support much larger.

 

Since you used the Windows Media tool and still had issues, I have to assume there was some other conflict, like missing USB3.1 drivers.

 

Regardless, I'm glad you got it going!