Windows 10: Windows 10 Clean Install: Missing Media Driver?

Hi, all. Bought a new Dell XPS13, (9360). Wanting to start with a clean machine, I'm trying to wipe the drive and install Windows 10 from a USB. But I am receiving an error message each time I try: A media driver your computer needs is missing.
I'm stumped. What am I doing wrong? Thank you.

:)

 

Unable to install the Windows 10 1607 update

The whole point of doing the
Clean Install Windows 10 is to use the latest Version 1607 media which is all that's avaiable in

Media Creation Tool.

Did you miss the step to
Create Windows 10 Installation Media?

 

Win10 clean install fails - missing media drivers

Try this... It helped me with the same error problem..

 

Did you use a USB3 stick? If so then that might be the problem. Can you make one using a USB2 stick?

 

and plug it into a black USB 2.0 port not a blue USB 3 port.

 

Re-create your Windows 10 USB flash drive.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/...dows-10-a.html

Option One: Use Media Creation Tool to create Bootable Windows 10 USB for Legacy BIOS and UEFI

 

The XPS 13 doesn't have any USB 2.0 ports. It comes with two USB 3.0 ports, and one Thunderbolt 3 Type C.
I don't have any older USB 2.0 drives. I'll grab one from the local Best Buy today and see if that makes a difference.
I haven't touched the BIOS. Could there possibly be a setting in the BIOS that needs to be changed? I'm reading about UEFI, secure boot, and fast boot. Wondering if any of that needs to be tinkered with?

 

I think it couldn't hurt to turn off secure boot and fast boot. You can always enable them when your done.

 

Made another Windows 10 installation drive, this time using a new USB 2.0. Turned off secure boot in the BIOS and tried both available USB ports on the laptop. Same results. . .keeps asking me for the storage driver.
When I get to the window that asks "Which type of installation do you want?" I select Custom, and when it proceeds to the next page, "Where do you want to install Windows?", the message appears "We couldn't find any drives. To get a storage driver, click Load driver." Then, when I do that the next page says to insert the installation media containing the driver.

 

How did you make the Windows 10 USB flash drive? Did you do it manually or use software? Please don't say you used Rufus.

What mode is the SATA (hard drive) controller set to in UEFI (Bios). It should be AHCI. If it is set to RAID that might be the problem.

 

With the 3.0 drive I used Rufus. . .is that a bad thing? On the 2.0 I used the Windows Media Creation tool.
The drive is a 256GB SSD. No expert with this stuff, but the BIOS shows the status as Non-RAID; controller type is NVMe; controller interface is PCIe.

 

Rufus causes a lot of problems when you don't get the overly complicated settings just exactly right for what you want to do, but that is apparently not your problem.

The problem is that Windows setup does not have a native NVMe driver included. I am not all that familiar with loading external drivers during Winodws setup but I do know that you will have to have the driver for the NVMe disk controller available either on a second USB flash drive or possibly on the same Windows 10 USB flash drive.

Not knowing specifically where to get the driver or how to load it during Windows setup, I can offer what I would try next if it were me. Download Kyhi's Recovery Tools. Mount the ISO file. Replace the \sources\boot.wim file on the Windows 10 installation USB flash drive with the \sources\boot.wim file from Kyhi's recovery tools. That will make the flash drive boot into Kyhi's recovery tools which might have the required driver included, I don't know. Then from file explorer run setup.exe from the same flash drive to start Windows setup and if Kyhi's recovery tools has the NVMe driver included, it should use that.

Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk

If your laptop is running the factory software, I can tell you how to export the drivers. Create a folder on a removable device such as a USB flash drive (if you have 2 or 3 GB room left on the Windows 10 installation flash drive it can be on that one), let's call it Drivers for example.

Then in a Command Prompt (Admin) run:

dism /online /export-driver /destination:E:\Drivers

The path in red will be to the folder you created, change the drive letter to match the external device.

The NVMe controller driver will be among those exported.

 

So you need to install mass storage drivers.

Dell XPS Notebook Reimage "How-To" Guide: www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/PDFs/1PF7R_UserManual1.PDF?v=1

 

support.dell.com > Dell XPS 13 (9360) > download "Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver and Management Console"
Run the .exe file > select "EXTRACT"
Copy folder "Windows10-x64" to USB flash drive

More info:

Windows 10 - Clean Install Guide : Dell

"This is a step-by-step guide written for beginners and tech savvy individuals alike; it outlines the method I used to completely reinstall Windows 10 on my brand new XPS 13 9350."

 

Thanks, gents. I needed to install that Intel Rapid Storage driver. Once I did, installing 10 was a breeze.