Problem with activating Win10 from Clean Install, and trouble to install back Win7

Gonzo100100 · 29 Jan 2016 at 17:15

Hello,
I have an annoying problem. I thought it would be good idea to move from Windows 7 Pro to Windows 10 Pro and I created a DVD selecting 'Create installation media for another PC' in the Microsoft Tool. I installed new OS on new partition over old ones (clean install) but I couldn't activate the OS, when I type in my activation key I get an alert that states, "You are running Windows 10 Pro. The product key you entered cannot be used to activate this edition. Error Code:0xc004f210 ". So I found out that my license is volume key license and when I understand what it is it makes sense for me because I acquired Win 7 Pro when I was at university but I finished it so I can't get new key for Win 10 from them. So as I called Microsoft volume licence support they told me to install my Windows 7 Pro back and upgrade it through "Upgrade now" option however, now I can't install it because I receive the error message, "A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing. If you have a driver floppy disk, CD, DVD, or USB flash drive, please insert it now.
Note: If the Windows installation media is in the CD/DVD drive, you can safely remove it for this step" and when I click ok I get "No device drivers were found. Make sure that the installation media contains the correct drivers, and then click OK." I tried to install the Win 7 ISO image on DVD and flash USB but they both don't work. Over few years I changed motherboard to Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H before that when I had my previous one I installed Win7 using the same image file through flash USB but now it doesn't work.

So now I don't know what I can do. Is it possible to apply somehow to Microsoft that my key will work normally on Windows 10. After all for few months I had "Upgrade to Windows 10 free" banner on my screen but now I can't get it to work. Or maybe you can instruct me how to force forward the installation of Windows7 so I could upgrade it from there.

encephalopathy · 31 Jan 2016 at 17:49

had a similar issue recently trying to get win7 back onto a laptop i had fitted a new hdd to. the device driver message came up when i inserted the usb stick with win7 on it into a usb3 port and tried to install. moving it to a different usb 2.0 port worked and it installed ok

Confused Stu · 31 Jan 2016 at 22:51

As the previous poster said, you can get this error if you're using a USB3 port to install through as Win7 does not natively come with drivers for USB3, so using a USB2 port can get around this. You can also get this if the Hard Drive you're installing to is connected on a port Win7 doesn't support natively. Try going to Gigabyte's website, selecting Downloads > Windows 7 and looking for the drivers for the port your SSD/HDD is on. I haven't had to use them ever but I presume you copy them to the USB, them press F6 when prompted in the Windows install, then select them so the installer will be able to see the drive you want to install Windows to.

Good luck.

Gonzo100100 · 1 Feb 2016 at 02:06

Thank you for your replies but I managed to resolve the problem. However, it all started from the fact that I had Windows 7 Professional from my university but actually the product key I had was for Enterprise version but I didn’t know that (because the key worked with Professional edition) or the fact that upgrade to Win 10 is not available to my version. So I had to come back to Win 7. Anyway, Microsoft tech support explained me a lot so I downloaded Windows 7 Enterprise ISO, installed it without any problem and I’m all right now. I believe that the problem with the Win 7 Pro installation I had was connected to Gigabyte motherboard (maybe there were some drivers missing) because I remember that I installed Win 7 (using the same ISO image and the same USB flash) something like 4 or 5 years ago to the same PC but with different motherboard (across the years I changed few components like motherboards but my SSDs stayed the same).
Finally I knew that I have to use USB 2.0 because 3.0 won’t work so the problem wasn’t that.
Summarising, Windows 10 upgrade unfortunately isn’t free for everyone. However Win 7 in my opinion isn’t obsolete so I am most likely going to wait for the next proper Windows before I spend £180 on it (by proper I mean Windows like XP, 7 and now perhaps 10)