Notebook Boot and Lockup

Good afternoon. I post this only after exhausting all other options that I can find.

Every laptop that I own, I build from scratch. Once it is built and updated and software installed, I snap an image of the device. This time, however, I can not get this system to install Windows 7 Pro x64.

At first, I couldn't even get it to boot to a flash drive or external CD drive. An hour later, I updated the BIOS and reset everything back to factory defaults and boom, it finally loads up Windows.

Now, I go through the setup process but every time I go to look at the drives [to format and what not], it tells me that I'm missing a required device driver. I select my language, and proceed, but get stuck at the same place.

This is where I get super confused: This model laptop doesn't have a CD/DVD drive available, yet it's telling me that I'm missing 'a required CD/DVD drive device driver'. What?! Ok.

I've downloaded all the drivers for the notebook, as well as used a 3rd party software to export all of them to another drive. It tells me to insert a CD/DVD [although there are none] or a flash drive to install the drivers. I've done this with both an external CD/DVD drive and with a 2nd flash drive, but still get the same message.

My experience tells me to disable the USB 3.0 and force it down to 2.0, at least until I can get the OS installed, but I can't find any options for that in the BIOS. Does ANYONE have any other ideas to use?