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(Question + answer since it took me 12 hours to find a solution)

I had big trouble installing Windows 7 (Professional or Enterprise) on a Samsung NP900X3A, without using the recovery media DVD or after the harddisk / SSD has been completely formatted.

When installing from a bootable USB flash drive / stick, I got the following error messages:

Required cd/dvd drive device driver is missing.

And later on:

No new devices could be found. Make sure the driver files are correct and located on the driver installation media.

For me the trick was to remove the USB flash drive from the left-side port after getting the second stated error message. Then click the window close button and go back to the installation start screen. Stick in the same USB flash driver into the right-side port and click "Install now". Installation now continues flawlessly.

No additional drivers needed, just switching ports does the trick.

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Why not edit this to be an actual question, and then post the answer below? You'll be able to accept it after a day or two and we'll have one less "unanswered" question around here... – Mokubai Jun 18 '11 at 21:14
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closed as not a real question by squircle, random♦ Jun 25 '11 at 3:57

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. See the FAQ for guidance on how to improve it.

2 Answers

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I believe the issue you had is caused because the left side USB port is a USB 3.0 port. Windows 7 doesn't have drivers for this port type by default. I had the same problem, but when I simply started with my external drive plugged into the right port it worked no problem.

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I find it interesting that you had so many issues, it would seem from my experience that this is more due to your bootable OS installer config. Our customized Win 7 x64 Enterprise installer put on a bootable USB worked without issue. Our custom installer wipes the disc and any existing partitions before creating a single new partition and doing the install.

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