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[Trogdor1123]

I’m building a new computer for my daughter using some stuff i had leftover and I’m running into some issues and I’m hoping others can help.

I’m trying to use a usb to install windows 10 onto a 1tb Samsung 970 nvme drive. I’m doing it through the uefi “tool”. I don’t know the proper name for this. You be done dozens on installs via usb but this is my first time with a uefi mobo.

It gets to the “install” screen but then immediately afterwards it asks for a driver disk. Never seen this before. I’ve heard the usb might be bad? Any insights?

 

[BadBurger]

For some reason it can't find the storage-or-USB-related driver it needs.

If you're using the ports on the rear of the PC, try the front - or vice versa. Make sure to try both USB 2 and 3 interfaces if the Pc has both kinds.

If that doesn't work, yes, the USB drive may be bad.

 

[Mistake]

I know that during a normal install, windows wants an internet connection to get the most relevant drivers for your build. You might have an easier time plugging in the drive to a separate computer, side installing windows or linux, then throwing it in the new computer. After you’re updated, you’ll know for sure if the usbs are good or not, or if it was a driver issue.

That being said, BadBurger is also correct in saying at least 1 usb should work with base configurations

 

[kurisu_1974]

Does the installer see the HDD? Maybe it's a BIOS setting (SATA)

Was the USB created using the media creation tool?

 

[Nitty_Grimes]

Any help here?

How to install Windows 10 from USB with UEFI support

These tools help create a compatible USB flash drive and install Windows 10 on a UEFI-based PC.

www.windowscentral.com

 

[Futaleufu]

Make sure the Windows 10 version in the USB device is 21H2

 

[Gp1]

Do it on your pc, not on the new one.
Plug the SSD on your pc, IMG Windows on the SSD using Rufus, boot up the SSD you just formatted on your machine just to be sure, then transfer the driver to the new machine.

This way you can know if the problem was the SSD, USB or some motherboard configuration that you missed, and its way faster than install using the usb drive.

 

[Irobot82]

How is the USB formatted? FAT32 or NTFS?

 

[HoodWinked]

 

[Trogdor1123]

This is it! I will try it tonight. Hopefully it works

 

[Trogdor1123]

Sadly, these haven’t worked yet. I’m going to try a new usb stick tomorrow.

Side note, would windows 11 not work on a build like this?

 

[Mistake]

Sadly, these haven’t worked yet. I’m going to try a new usb stick tomorrow.

Side note, would windows 11 not work on a build like this?

Depends if the motherboard has the required security chip. But if 10 hasn’t worked yet, I wouldn’t think about it

 

[ClosBSAS]

Enable UEFI mode, make sure u used Rufus and make sure you choose the GPT option, not MBR. U need to have UEFI enabled in bios and yes, only works on USB 2.0.

The key is Rufus and choosing the GPT option.

 

[DrNeroCF]

Last time I was having issues with Windows installs, I had to take out a stick of ram to get it to work, don’t know if was really bad, or just enough to mess with the installer. Partitioning the target drive, or just an old ssd is definitely the way to go when trying multiple installs, though.

 

[BadBurger]

You could download all of the drivers from the manufacturers' website(s) to a folder on that USB drive and then point it to that folder during the installation. Storage controller drivers, NIC, USB controllers, everything you can find.

In the future, when you have Windows already installed on a system you can preemptively grab all of your drivers by using the powershell cmdlet export-windowsdriver. Like (in an admin session of powershell - or admin session of cmd but just type powershell to enter a PS session within that cmd session):

export-windowsDriver -online -destination c:\wherever

Back when I still built and restored physical servers this was a common thing when I created Windows ISO's for restore or build purposes. Many different blade servers have unique versions of hardware, like blade server NICs that are both gigabit ethernet and fibre channel controllers at the same time, or storage controllers that have unique OS-level error correction functionalities, that sort of thing. This is because you're basically booting into what is the Windows Recovery Environment, and it has mostly just the generic drivers that are "good enough" for most hardware.

 

[Trogdor1123]

I have been playing around with this for a few days and no dice. I just pulled the nvme drive and tossed in a sata drive and it worked just fine… wtf?

 

[hrab]

How old is your motherboard? I had a similiar issue but with a different error message, something like "windows cannot be installed on that disk", and the reason for that was I wanted to use a nvme drive with an old motherboard that did not support booting from the nvme drive (in fact it didnt even have the slot, I was using PCIe adapter to connect it), and as a workaround I used a tool called Clover Boot. Small disadvantage of that is that I need to have a usb stick with clover boot connected and boot from it first, but in general it works quite well and allowed me to use the disk i wanted with my old motherboard.

 

[Valonquar]

Your issue is the windows installer doesn't have the NVME drive driver it needs. The most common way to get around this involves using DISM to mount the windows installer .wim file, inject the needed drivers into it and un-mount it. Then it should work.

How to Add/Remove Drivers to a Windows WIM/ISO Install Image | Windows OS Hub

You can simplify the deployment of the operating system on typical workstations (servers) if you add all the necessary drivers to the Drive Store of your Windows install image. In…

woshub.com

I have to add Dell & Lenovo driver WinPE packs to my windows image pretty regularly as part of my sysadmin job. It's super annoying.

 

[Drew1440]

Make sure you are booting from a drive connected to a USB 2.0 port, some motherboards have USB3 controllers that Windows Installer has no drivers for.

Also what make/model is the mobo?