When trying to install Windows 7, 10, 11, an error may appear that prevents the continuation of the system installation procedure. The message says “Boot failed,” and the note says “Necessary media driver not found. This could be a DVD, USB or hard disk driver. ” An error of a similar nature may sound: “The required driver for the optical disc drive was not found.” There is a problem, but no hints for fixing it are given in the text. We figure out what could really be the case and how to fix the problem.
Reasons for the error
The crux of the problem is that the USB driver cannot be recognized by Windows PE. Windows PE is based on Windows 7, 10 and is designed to prepare a PC for installing an operating system. If the drive cannot be recognized, an error message appears. It always comes down to this, but there are various reasons why it is not possible to identify the drive. Today, more and more often, the fact is that the flash drive is connected to USB 3.0, which is not supported by Windows 7. Plus, this version does not always work stably with old equipment.
How do I fix the error?
We propose to start with the simplest and move gradually to more time-consuming methods. In this case, the very first methods are usually the most effective, so we recommend that you follow them in the same order as described in the instructions below.
- Reconnecting the flash drive or external HDD. It is enough just to remove the plug from the connector and plug it in again, but it is better to use the back panel for this (on stationary PCs).
- Switch to a different connector… Typically USB 3.0 is blue and USB 2.0 is black. It’s worth connecting to a regular USB 2.0 port and trying to install Windows again. This is especially true when installing Windows 7, which does not support version 3.
- Change settings USB in BIOS… Since the installation drive may not support USB 3.0, you can simply unplug it. There are 2 configuration options in the BIOS: auto – automatic detection of the version and adjustment for it, disabling – completely deactivates USB 3.0.
- Overwrite the boot disk… If it has not been used for a long time or, on the contrary, has been used often, it is worth trying to re-mount the installation image to the drive. First you need to do the formatting.
- Use a different program to mount the image… Some computers react negatively to certain software. You can try alternatives: UltraISO, Rufus, WinSetupFromUSB.
- Try a different look Windows… Maybe there are some bugs in this or the files were not downloaded completely, we encountered a problem during the installation.
- Replace recording device… You can try another flash drive, external HDD or disk. Maybe the current device is damaged and therefore refuses to start.
Another advanced option is to add USB 3.0 drivers to the operating system or installation drive. However, we do not consider this method because very often the necessary drivers are included in the Chipset Drivers and they simply cannot be installed separately. In all other cases, one of the following should help.