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Driver Error when Starting Win 7 Setup

Hello Experts

I am trying to install Win 7 Home x64 on a Dell Inspiron 15-7568. It originally came with Win 10, but my father cannot use it, so I thought to downgrade it to Win 7 and use the Generic Drivers.

This laptop does not have a CD/DVD Drive, so I extracted the Win 7 iso onto a USB Drive, booted from it, and as soon as I click Install Now, i get:

Load Driver
A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing.  If you have  a driver floppy disk, CD, DVD, or USB flash drive, please insert it now.

Note: If the Windows installation media is in the CD/DVD drive, you can safely remove it for this step.

========

What does this mean? What type of driver is it looking for?/
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Avatar of Sean Plemons Kelly, CISSP
Sean Plemons Kelly, CISSP
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I redid the USB using tthe Microsoft tool, but same error
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What are Storage Drivers? For Harddrive??

No, DELL has no Win 7 drivers, but can't I use generic drivers?
Every computer has a chipset and a way of communicating with devices.  The install media comes with some specific drivers and generic drivers, which don't work in your scenario.
Just use Windows 10. It's the best option. Or explain why you can't use Windows 10.
My  dad simply can't use it.  He used his Winn 7 few hours a day, but he has barely touched this in 2yrs.

Plus, i find things a lot slower, like Outlook...

BTW, can I force USB2.0 Boot
You need to disable security Boot in BIOS and then you going to be able to select different boot options
I still can't understand why he can't use Windows 10. The interface is practically the same. It is not like Windows 8.x where everything was radically different and unusable.

Just take some time and teach him with what he doesn't understand. Also, Windows 10 really is faster when compared with Windows 7. If you think it is slower you must either be mistaken, or there is too much bloatware or misconfiguration in the system. And as I said, in 3 years (actually less, as support ends in January), you'll be forced to use Windows 10 anyway, so installing Windows 7 is nothing but a waste of time, particularly on hardware that doesn't support that OS.
I did disable Security Bios, same error
If you disable Security Boot, you need to go back to boot section and select boot from CD/DVD as your first option
You can also push F12 (when security Boot is disabled) in process of computer start to get Boot Menu, then you can select USB as you boot device
I did all thhat.

It is also a  USB3.0, can i force it to USB 2.0
Probably You not going to be able install Windows 7 from USB 3.0 since installer will not have USB 3.0 drivers and it will not see disk.
You need to put bootable USB drive into USB 2.0 port.

Do you see boot menu if you keep pushing F12 in computer startup ?
Make sure your security boot is off and your boot options is set for LEGACY Boot
Here are my boot menu options.

Is there something I can buy to make the USB 2.0?
1.jpg
2.jpg
Just go for Windows 10. It makes no sense at all to downgrade. For the user Windows 10 and 7 are so similar that I just can't understand why someone who used Windows 7 can't use Windows 10. The main differences are the settings, which no one will use once setup, and the windows store crapps which no one uses anyway. Just uninstall those you can, and remove all of them from the start menu.

As for Secure boot, that is not the issue here. He can boot. The problem is that he isn't using a USB 2 port. Doesn't your PC have any USB 2 ports? Windows 7 didn't come with USB 3 support so those drivers are missing. You need a USB 2 port to install the OS from. If you don't have USB 2 ports on the PC, you need to integrate the USB3 drivers into the boot.wim and install.wim files of the installation media, and that is not that easy.

So again, your best option is most definitely Windows 10.
Can't I just download USB 3.0 drivers for Win 7 on a separate flash drive, and install them at the prompt from my original post,

And, I'm  sorry, this post isn't asking for a lecture for Win 10.
So if you will put putable USB flash drive with Windows 7 installation image into USB port and you'll chose USB storage device you can;t boot from it ?

If not maybe your flash drive is not prepared right ?
Did you try use Rufus USB creator ?

If you still have your Windows 7 installation  DVD try use Rufus
https://rufus.akeo.ie/
No that doesn't work. You need to integrate the drivers into the wim files I mentioned earlier. But you will need Windows 7 drivers for the USB port to work. If your PC doesn't have USB3 drivers you won't be able to do it anyway.

The below Link shows how you can integrate the drivers:

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/28994847/Dell-Precision-5510-Downgrade-to-Windows-7-Pro.html?anchorAnswerId=41958935#a41958935
I am able to boot, and I get in Win 7 Setup, but immidiately after, its prompting for driver
Try to download Windows 8 drivers and integrate or just extract whole files to get inf file on root of USB drive
I downloaded Win7-USB3.0-Creator-V3-Win7Admin.zip from https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25476/Windows-7-USB-3-0-Creator-Utility and extracted it to the root of the USB, but it did not hellp.

As I still have access to my C:\ through Win 10, I copied the same folder to C:\, went back to Win 7 Setup, navigated to C:\ folder, but incorrec driver.

I think some progress, but where do I get the correct USB 3.0 Drivers for Win 7?
They aren't available. So you are stuck with Windows 10. Even if they were available, you probably would have issues with other drivers that also aren't available for Windows 7. So basically it won't work, and you are left with the best option of using Windows 10 like I said all along anyway.
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