As time goes by, installing a fresh copy of Windows is becoming a walk in the park. The instructions are very clear and what was once just the job of a technician can easily be done by ordinary people..
However, after installation, you may encounter the error »A media driver your computer needs is missing«. This error means that some of the drivers that need to be started on the new machine are missing from the installation media (either USB, CD, etc.). There are several factors that can be responsible for this error:
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The USB drive you are using may not work properly and transfer the data to the computer properly.
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The speed at which the DVD was burned or the ISO setting was not balanced. Was it too fast or too slow.
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Your system hardware uses IDE instead if SATA,
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The media you downloaded and are about to install is corrupt or incomplete.
There are several methods through which you can resolve the error message. Start with the first solution and proceed accordingly.
Solution 1: replace the USB device with another port
The simplest solution is to remove the USB device after pressing cancel and then reconnect it to another port. This seems too good to be true, but it is. This bug appears to be a bug that arose particularly early in 2017. Follow the steps below carefully and work your way down.
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Press the »Cancel» button in the error message dialog when it appears.
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Once you are on the welcome screen, insert the USB into a different port than above. Now click on »Install Now» to install a new copy of Windows. Hopefully, you will not have to go any further and the error will be solved in this same step.
Suggestion: you can try connecting the device to another type of USB port. For example, if you are using USB 3.0, you should try to connect the device to 2.0 and see if this produces any change. What's more, try connecting it to the back of your pc.
Solution 2: check hardware requirements
Of course, you should use a decent PC that already meets all the requirements, but if you are using an older PC, you should check if Windows 10 is even compatible. If the hardware requirements are not met, the operating system will throw errors like these and, in consecuense, will prohibit you from installing the operating system.
This is the official documentation from the official Microsoft website. Make sure your hardware reaches the limits set.
Solution 3: check BIOS settings
Incorrect BIOS settings can also be the cause of the error message. There are several cases where the media you are trying to install does not have proper USB support 3.0.
If there are any USB support settings 3.0 present in your computer's BIOS, you must change it to Auto. If there is an option to disable, you can also do it.
Another tip is to disable Legacy USB and Legacy BIOS in BIOS setup if you are trying to install a Windows version of 64 bits. You can also make sure you have AHCI enabled before connecting the installation unit to your computer..
What's more, you need to make sure your machine uses IDE mode (Integrated Drive Electronics) instead of SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment). You can also try checking the extracted settings. If it is in NTFS format, you need to extract the ISO in FAT32 and use the settings to install Windows.
Solution 4: check the installation media
If all the above methods didn't work, there is a possibility that the installation media you are installing is corrupted or incomplete. This has been the case for several different users. The download finished as expected, but missing components in the middle.
One way to check if you have the complete and correct package is to compare the size of the .iso file with the mentioned one. If it is different, it probably means you have a corrupt package on your hands and you should try to download the .iso file again from the official Microsoft website.
Suggestion: There have been some cases where users reported that using Internet Explorer instead of Chrome solved the problem for them. According to reports, Chrome is not working well with Microsoft downloads. If you keep getting errors when downloading from Microsoft's official website, you should try from another source. It is recommended to use the Firefox browser to download large files.
If you have drivers for your modules, as a chipset controller, can install your SATA drivers. This will be fixed if there is something wrong with the SATA controllers.
Solution 5: use RUFUS instead of the media creation tool
If all the above methods don't work, the first and most important step you should try is to download the ISO file again from a verified source and change the USB source to which you are loading the installation media.
If you still have problems, exit the media creation tool and try using RUFUS. Check out our detailed article on how to use RUFUS to create installation media on your USB drive.
