Boot Controller Driver needed to install Windows 7 pro on HP Z420

[EWilson7]

Good afternoon,
     I have receive tremendous help before from Paul Tikkanen with a similar problem. And would greatly appreciate his help again if possible.  I am doing a clean install of Windows 7 Professional on an HP Z420 workstation for our ministry. And attempting to use a USB (as he previously showed me) to do so.  

     Each time I begin the install, I am receiving notification that:   "A Required CD/DVD drive device is missing . . . If you have a driver floppy disk, CD, DVD, or USB flash drive, please insert now."

     How can I meet this request and thus continue the full installation ?

Thank you, and your help is greatly appreciated !

Sincerely,
Eric Wilson

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi, Eric:

I believe that if you insert the USB flash drive in one of the PC's USB 2 ports, it should boot up.

The problem with W7 is it does not have the USB3 drivers included in the setup files, so that is the most likely reason why you are getting that error.

According to the specs, there is one USB 2 port in the front of the PC.

HP Z420 Workstation Product Specifications | HP® Support

[EWilson7]

Thank you Paul,

      Yes, this fixed the initial problem . . . Now it is stating that "no drives were found."

I am using an SSD (Samsung 870 evo 1TB), but for some reason windows installation it not recognizing that it is there?

    Thank you for your help, and any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,
Eric Wilson

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Windows 7 probably does not have the storage controller drivers needed to find the drive.

I have zipped up and attached the Intel SATA controller driver files from your PC's support page, below.

Download and unzip the file to its folder.

Copy all of the files in the folder to a USB flash drive.

Have the flash drive and your W7 installation media plugged into USB ports.

Boot from the W7 installation flash drive.

When you get to the screen where no drives can be found, click on the Load driver option, browse to the flash drive with the storage controller drivers on it.

If you check the box, it will only include the compatible driver.

Click Next and hopefully W7 should find the drive and install.

[EWilson7]

Good morning Paul,
     Thank you so very much, this worked perfectly. Windows 7 installed and I plan to work on updating the missing drivers tomorrow. I really appreciate all of the help you have been. This will mean a great deal to our Lord and Saviour's work here at the ministry. Thank you !

    I will write again if I have any questions with the drivers needed. 
May our Saviour and Mighty God bless and keep you abundantly this week !
your friend and brother in Him,

Eric Wilson

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome, Eric.

God Bless you too!

Cheers,

Paul

[EWilson7]

Good morning Paul,
      I have been able, by the grace of our Mighty God and your help, to install Windows 7 pro on the HP Z420 workstation perfectly.  I went back and used some of the information and driver downloads also that you shared with me about 2 years ago when building the other machine.

     Today, I found that I need a driver (?) for the DVD drive.  The computer recognizes that the player/burner is installed, but when inserting a DVD, nothing happens?

     Can you direct me to the right resource?
Thank you for all of your help, and I pray that you are blessed today !
Sincerely,
Eric Wilson

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Good morning, Eric:

The only suggestion I can offer if it is a video DVD that won't play, would be to install the free VLC Media Player app.

Official download of VLC media player, the best Open Source player - VideoLAN

Cheers,

Paul

[EWilson7]

Good morning Paul,
     It is actually a CD Rom, with software that is needed for the ministry. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Thank you,
Eric Wilson

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, Eric:

Unfortunately, I won't be able to help you with getting the DVD drive to work.

If it shows up in Windows Explorer, the drivers are installed and a CD should not need any additional software to work properly.

I recommend you start a new discussion on the subject and hopefully someone else can help.

Usually when things like that happen, the drive has a hardware issue.

Do you have a DVD video you can play?

Test that out and see if that works.

DVD drives have two lasers.  One reads CD's and one reads DVD's.

Cheers,

Paul