Introduction
Recently I came across a problem when attempting to install
Windows 7 onto a Dell Precision 7710. I would boot up with a DVD that
had an .iso image of Windows 7 installed on it, but when after clicking
the install windows button, I would get a notice that the installer
couldn't locate the CD/DVD driver and I needed to browse to locate it.
Well, I thought I would be smart and instead do the install via a USB
device. Same error. Well, how does this make sense? It's asking for a
DVD driver when using a USB device. That's like your car throwing a CEL
for the carburetor not working when you're using fuel injection.
This
issue is caused because the installer media doesn't have a driver to
install through a USB 3.0 port. You might ask, well why did the DVD
drive throw the error? Well, that's because the DVD drive was an
external because there is no internal DVD drive on this model laptop. So
I now know my problem. USB 3.0 drivers need to be added to the boot
media. Follow this guide and I'll show you how to accomplish this using
the CMD line and the DISM utility.
Steps
Now, I had all intention of describing this how-to
specifically for adding USB 3.0 drivers, but it can also be used for
adding any number of drivers to the boot media as well.
First thing you're going to do is to download the USB drivers from
either your computer's manufacturer or from your motherboard's
manufacturer. With the Dell Precision 7710 I went to http://www.dell.com/support, punched in my service tag number and proceeded to download an entire driver pack in .CAB format.
Depending on the type of file you downloaded, it could be
an .exe, a .cab, or a .zip, so you'll need to unzip the drivers out of
this file. Driver files are historically mainly .inf files, but you
don't need to pick and choose the individual files because this next
process makes it automatic for you. The DISM (Deployment Image Servicing
and Management Tool) is smart and will automatically grab the correct
files.
1. Create a folder on your desktop named 'Drivers'.
2. Create two folders inside of the 'Drivers' folder, 'mount' and 'USB'.
3. Extract or copy/paste the driver files directly into the 'USB'
folder. I used 7-zip to extract my driver files directly into the 'USB'
folder.
Locate these two files from within your boot media. This
is easy if you are using a USB drive instead of a DVD, so that you don't
have to reburn the DVD once we finish modifying these files.
Example: If the USB drive is plugged in and has been given drive
letter 'P:\' you will locate the 'boot.wim' and 'install.wim' files
within the path: P:\sources
It is best to just cut them out of the install media, but if you want
to have a backup copy you can copy and paste. You are pasting into the
'Drivers' folder on the desktop. Just make sure to overwrite the old
files with the new updated ones once we're finished with this process.
Windows 7:
1. Start, type in cmd, right click on the icon and choose Run as Administrator
Windows 8:
1. Windows Key + Q
2. Move mouse to top right corner and search, type in Command Prompt, Right click and Run as Administrator.
Next, you will need to change the directory path so that it isn't pointing to the default of C:\Windows\System32.
Type in: cd C:\Users\%currentuser%\Desktop\Drivers - Then press Enter.
*Note: Make sure to change the %currentuser% to that of the user profile where the 'Drivers' folder was saved.
In the cmd line now displaying the cd pointing to the right directory, type in these commands pressing enter after each one.
dism /mount-wim /wimfile:boot.wim /index:2 /mountdir:mount
Explanation: This command mounts the boot.wim file, index points it
to the correct boot parameters for the correct OS, and /mountdir:mount
points it to mount the file to the 'mount' folder we created in this
directory earlier.
dism /image:mount /add-driver:"USB" /recurse
Explanation: This command automatically grabs the driver files that
it locates in the 'USB' folder that we created earlier and copied the
drivers to. This can take a while depending on the number of driver
files that it locates.
dism /unmount-wim /mountdir:mount /commit
Explanation: This command unmounts the boot.wim file and saves the
information. Think of this as a file transfer/compression process.
This process wasn't necessary on the 'boot.wim' file, but
it is in the 'install.wim' file. Each version of Windows can have a
specific index number and we will need to locate which one it is in
order to issue the command for the version of Windows you plan on
installing. This is specific to the install media you are using because
some install media only comes with one version of Windows 7, such as
Professional, but some others may have multiple version of Windows 7,
such as Home, Ultimate and Professional, just to name a few.
Issue the following command to determine what your version is:
dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:install.wim
You'll see in the screenshot that I have an index of 1.
You should still be pointed to the correct directory, so
now issue the following commands to update the 'install.wim' file, using
the index information you got from the step above.
dism /mount-wim /wimfile:install.wim /index:1 /mountdir:mount
Explanation: All exactly the same as the boot.wim file command, except the index is the only difference.
dism /image:mount /add-driver:"USB" /recurse
dism /unmount-wim /mountdir:mount /commit
Since I used the Cut/Paste method to remove these two
files from the P:\sources location, I'm going to do the same to remove
them from the C:\Users\%currentuser%\Desktop\Drivers folder and place
them back into the P:\sources folder.
Wait for the transfer to finish. This is going to take a little bit
longer to copy back over to the flash drive because the files going back
in are larger than they were before due to the driver files that you've
added to it.
Take out the flash drive and pop it into the machine you
want to reinstall Windows 7 on. You should now find that you no longer
receive the pesky CD/DVD driver missing notice.
Conclusion
Thank you all for reading through this. This helped me greatly in
my time of need and these commands can be adapted to suit whichever
folder names you want to use. Good luck!
How To Add Drivers to Windows 7 ISO to Boot/Install USB 3.0
