Windows 10, 8, 7 install – A required cd/dvd drive device driver is missing

When you are installing Windows 10, Windows 8, or Windows 7, do you get the error message at the beginning of Windows Installation?

 

If your answer is YES, you came to the right place to troubleshoot the annoying Windows installation issue. We are going to explain what we have experienced few days ago while we are installing Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit version for one of our client. We have Toshiba Satellite Z830 Ultrabook, and we had to re-install the Windows operating system. Since it was an Ultrabook, there is no optical drive like DVD. No problems here because we can simply install Windows 7 using an external DVD drive or we can also use a bootable USB. We tried both, and both did not work!!! We couldn’t understand what just happened.. We knew that our ISO image file was not corrupted, and we also tried genuine Windows DVD which was completely new. There was no single scratch on the DVD disk, but eventually, we did make it work. Let’s find out how!


How to fix this “A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing

 

According to the official Microsoft support website, there are causes of this error. Let’s learn why this error occurs.

This issue occurs for one of the following reasons:

  • The installation DVD is removed during the setup process.
  • A low-quality DVD was used to create the installation DVD.
  • The speed at which the installation DVD was burned was too fast.
  • The DVD drive cannot read the media.
  • The ISO file is corrupted.

So, by reading the reasons provided by Microsoft support web page, one of those reasons must be ours, but in our case, it wasn’t:

  • The installation DVD is removed during the setup process.
  • A low-quality DVD was used to create the installation DVD.
  • The speed at which the installation DVD was burned was too fast.
  • The DVD drive cannot read the media.
  • The ISO file is corrupted.

None of the reasons does not applied to us! No way! By the Microsoft support website, when you have the error message, you can try one of these to troubleshoot the installation problem:

 

1. Try a different Windows Installation Disk

 

2. Try to burn DVD at different burning speed (lower burning speed is more reliable)

 

3. Try a different DVD drive or USB memory stick (If it is internal DVD, check the SATA or IDE cable too)

 

4. Try a different Windows ISO image before burning a installation disk

In our case, we were connecting an external DVD drive to install, and we realized that the USB port that we were connecting our DVD drive was not working. It may needed a USB 3.0 driver to operate. Of course, a damaged USB port will cause the same error message when you are connecting Windows installation media to this damaged USB port. (because it fails to communicate) So, we are adding one more solution for this:

 

5. If you are connecting an external DVD drive or connecting a USB memory, try different USB port. A malfunctioning or a damaged USB port may cause this error message

 

Our solution was the number 5! We wish all of you have fixed that “A required cd/dvd drive device driver is missing” error!

We wish you have a wonderful day!