Vista DVD v USB = Missing drives?

FatRakoon

FatRakoon

FatRakoon

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
10,436
Location
Behind you... Naked!
I just had a silly issue and its kind of bugging me.
I have tried to plop Vista onto an old PC ( Yes, I have reasons, no they are not normal ) and the ISO Images that I have with SP2 intergrated etc, simply dont see the disks in the PC... Obviously, I have also tried to point to the drivers and yes, I do have the corect drivers, but the installer simply will not work to see the disks to install Vista onto it.
Now, the DVDs that I have, are the originals that DO NOT have SP2 intergrated, but hey will at least let me chuck Vista on, and so I used the Home Premium DVD and it then moaned that it cannot install to the Disk as it was GPT formatted.
So, I have used a Linux Distro to wipe the disks for MBR and put Vista on, but then I decided to do a fresh USB Drive with the Home Prem as that sees the disks, and then on booting that, that too also does not see the disks?

So thats basically it... Booting from USB, it wont see the disks, nor let me load in teh drivers, however, booting the very same distro from DVD, does!

Quite Annoying.

I am going to now make a DVD with one of the intergrated SP2 ISOs to see if they allow the installer to see the disks again?

No question as such, but if anyone has the answers as to why this is happening, then Id like to know?
 
adidan said:
No answers I'm afraid but just one question.

You know the question.
Click to expand...
I got a genuine reason for this... I have recently been sodding about with my old ZIP Drives as I used to use them with the Atari TT and Falcon to move files to & From the PC and them.
I have not needed to until recently and I thought I would have a laugh at them again only to learn that Windows ( or Linux ) no longer supports them.

I did think they were old and broken, but they do still work.
I kind of gave up but I just fancied giving Vista a play with and have a play with the ZIP Drive again.

I do have legal Licences for Vista, I am doing nothing illegal.
 
Just a thought. Are you installing from a USB 3 port and USB 3 flash disk? If so, perhaps try installing from a USB 2 port - if one of these aren't available, maybe a USB 2 flash disk in the USB 3 port might work?
 
FatRakoon said:
I have simply burned the SP2 ISO onto a DVD and its installing now.
The Mobo IS a gigabyte so I might have a play with the tool sure.
Click to expand...
Don't think it even matters
If its a gigabyte board or not I think other manufacturers did similar tools
Was so long ago I can't remember exactly why
But think it was something to do with windows 7
Though may work on vista too
Maybe you couldn't install 7 off flash drives until this tool
Or maybe it was to do with usb 3 ports
Whatever the reason you should be able try it and see what happens
Think the tool basically adds the needed usb/chipset drivers
And support for the first nvme drives as an option maybe
 
That one, is the GA-F2A85XN-WIFI

Its a little ITX setup with an A10 CPU in it.
For what its worth, I put Vista SP2 onto a DVD and it instralled perfectly fine. I have NOT yet had a play with the ZIP Drive ( the whole reason for plonking Vista onto it ) but hey ho.
 
Ah you got AMD CPU, not Intel CPU.

Had a look at AMD chipset driver, found USB 3.0 host controller driver located at mb_driver_chipset_fm2_w7-vista\chipset\Packages\Drivers\SBDrv\hseries\USB30\amdxhc\LH.


The video method worked for Intel USB 3.0 driver on Vista and 7 could also work with AMD USB 3.0 driver.

Try extract chipset driver and drop chipset folder in root of Vista USB stick and boot it, should able to load USB 3.0 driver at setup to install Vista. If it not work then try copy and paste LH fonder from mb_driver_chipset_fm2_w7-vista\chipset\Packages\Drivers\SBDrv\hseries\USB30\amdxhc\LH to root of Vista USB stick.
 
Erm, I think that there is some confusion going on here?

There is NOTHING wrong with the USB chipset driver? - The USB ports are working just fine

It was the DISK CONTROLER that was not being used and the HARD DISKS were unavailable, when I booted from USB.

I used the very same ISO Image and when I put this onto a USB, it booted just fine but it failed to see the Hard Disks. When I then burned that very same image to DVD, it did see the hard disks.

But I NEVER had any issues with the USB itself!
 
Pure guess but could it be something to do with CSM or legacy stuff related to USB (i can't remember the exact names of them, something like XHCI handoff and USB storage devices) in the BIOS.

e: I say guess as it seems something to do with the BIOS loading the USB as a drive/disk is knocking out the controller.
 
Last edited:
The SP2 is integrated in to the Full Windows image. The issue you have is with drivers in Windows PE, the setup phase.

You could try and mount the boot.wim and add the drivers for your storage adapter, but an easier solution is create a Window 10 setup USB and replace the USB:\sources\install.wim with the one from your Vista USB or DVD, whichever is the more up to date one with SP2.

If that doesn't work let me know and I'll give you some DISM commands to apply the WIM.
 
Last edited:
@FatRakoon reading back through the OP. The DVD setup can see your drives and pick one for installation, but the USB installer doesn't see the drives?

If I've understood that correctly then the DVD setup (WinPE) has the drivers needed for your storage adapter. Take the boot.wim from the DVD and copy to the USB. The USB will use this image to boot and you'll be able to see your drives.

Copy DVD:\sources\boot.wim to USB:\sources\boot.wim
 
Last edited:
Mujja said:
@FatRakoon reading back through the OP. The DVD setup can see your drives and pick one for installation, but the USB installer doesn't see the drives?

If I've understood that correctly then the DVD setup (WinPE) has the drivers needed for your storage adapter. Take the boot.wim from the DVD and copy to the USB. The USB will use this image to boot and you'll be able to see your drives.

Copy DVD:\sources\boot.wim to USB:\sources\boot.wim
Click to expand...

But the ISO is the very same ISO for both, so wouldnt the boot.wim be the same?

Ill compared the two shortly.
 
FatRakoon said:
Erm, I think that there is some confusion going on here?

There is NOTHING wrong with the USB chipset driver? - The USB ports are working just fine

It was the DISK CONTROLER that was not being used and the HARD DISKS were unavailable, when I booted from USB.

I used the very same ISO Image and when I put this onto a USB, it booted just fine but it failed to see the Hard Disks. When I then burned that very same image to DVD, it did see the hard disks.

But I NEVER had any issues with the USB itself!
Click to expand...
Yes your USB 3.0 ports are working just fine but Vista, Vista SP1, Vista SP2, 7 and 7 SP1 original installation iso images did not have NATIVE USB 3.0/USB 3.1 drivers support that why people have issues install Vista or 7 on USB 3.0/3.1 ports cant recognised any HDD or SSD. People will need to put extracted USB 3.0/3.1 drivers folder on root of Vista/7 USB stick then run the installation setup and the USB 3.0 driver should be loaded then the setup will recognised disk drives available to install. If drop USB 3.0 driver to USB stick method not worked then people will need to integrated USB 3.0 driver into iso or USB stick used VLite.

Installing Windows Vista or 7 is frustrating on modern hardware due to lack of native USB 3.0/3.1 support. Without modern USB support, the system can be rendered useless due to lack of available media to transfer files. Give thanks to canonkong for compiling a USB 3.0 driver for Windows Vista/7 machines!
Click to expand...

Intel USB 3.0/3.1 for Win Vista/7/8/8.1/10 | Operating System Revival

retrosystemsrevival.blogspot.com

The latest NTLite version are no longer supported Vista, it very difficult to find old NTLite versions that can extracted Vista iso.

I tested MSMG Toolkit v13.3 extracted Vista iso but crashed everytime I tried to integrated driver then found MSMG Toolkit WinPE drivers folder have 7, 8.l, 10 and 11 so it seemed did not supported Vista.

Tried downloaded DISM++ and opened Vista iso but strangely it threw up error message said incorrected file type but I tested opened 11 22H2 iso just fine and it looked like DISM++ no longer supported Vista.

I found Vlite 1.2 that was the last version supported Vista. Tested worked fine, VLite app will require you to download and install Vista AIK from Microsoft and also require you to copy wimgapi.dll from AIK folder to Vlite root folder. VLite did not supported extracted iso file so you will need to extracted Vista files to source folder VLite will able to detect and integrate USB 3.0 driver.

www.softpedia.com

Download vLite

Download vLite 1.2 Final - It means easy removal of unwanted components and bootable ISO creation in order to make Vista run faster and to your liking
www.softpedia.com www.softpedia.com

The reason your DVD drive recognised disk drives in Vista setup is because DVD drive used SATA3 interface, the installation setup already has native SATA3 driver support.
 
Last edited:
AthlonXP1800 said:
Yes all files included boot.wim on both DVD and USB was exactly the same. :cry:
Click to expand...
Maybe the OP is confusing. If one ISO can see the drives in WinPE and the other can't, the the boot.wim isn't the same.

Re-reading the OP, it's Vista on DVD and Vista+SP2 on USB. The USB setup isn't able to see the drives to install to, but the DVD can see the drives.
 
Last edited:
AthlonXP1800 said:
need to integrated USB 3.0 driver into iso or USB stick used VLite.
Click to expand...

How will adding USB drivers to the Vista OS (install.wim) help with the Windows setup (boot.wim)

AthlonXP1800 said:
The reason your DVD drive recognised disk drives in Vista setup is because DVD drive used SATA3 interface, the installation setup already has native SATA3 driver support.
Click to expand...

AthlonXP1800 said:
Yes all files included boot.wim on both DVD and USB was exactly the same. :cry:
Click to expand...

If as you say, the DVD ISO has SATA3 drivers but the USB ISO doesn't, then how are they the same?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom