windows 7 wont install with only usb 3.0 ports

scotslad

scotslad

scotslad

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Heres one that may bamboozle a lot of people, trying to figure this out if its possible or not ?

Ever increasingly systems are cutting back on usb 2.0 altogether although most still have at least 1 or 2 of those ports, some newer boards dont and they dont have any board headers for usb 2.0 either, just usb 3.0 and thats it.

So you have a system that is only compatible with USB 3.0 (until windows 7 is installed), so that means the motherboard is totally usb 3.0 and the ports on the case are also usb 3.0 too.

Ok, most of us know that usb 3.0 is backward compatible with older types of usb versions but this only applies when windows 7 is already installed on said PC and normally windows 7 will detect either type of usb versions automatically if installing devices etc.

However, how do we get round about the fact that during a windows 7 clean install on said system, windows 7 doesnt recognise or see the usb 3.0 ports so instantly you hit a major problem, windows 7 wont install because windows 7 doesnt support usb 3.0 from a new clean install.

Does anyone know for sure how to fix this easily as I can see people all over the internet complaining about it and seemingly its not just a very simple fix.

Does anyone know ?
 
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Steveocee said:
I thought this was negated if you used a USB 2 stick?
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seemingly not no, windows 7 at default new install has no USB 3.0 drivers contained so it cant see any usb 3.0 devices unless windows 7 is fully installed and updated and then as usb 3 devices get added it can see them as you can add the usb 3.0 drivers for each device, but not during windows 7 install.

I dont think windows 8 or 10 suffer from this problem, just windows 7.
 
darael said:
The Asus website has USB 3.0 drivers, so when Windows 7 asks for drivers during installation supply these drivers to it.
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but is it really that simple mate ? I honestly dont know as I have never came across this in my life before.

How can a usb 3 system even see the windows 7 boot up to start with, know what I mean ?
Seemingly if you attempt it the usb 3 ports wont be seen or the devices, I still cant get my heard around this :eek:
 
Matt-Page said:
Can't you put the USB3.0 drivers into the W7 install USB?
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I have no idea, all I can think is if windows 7 cant see the usb 3.0 ports then how will it even be able to see a usb stick or external dvd drive or external hard drive etc.

I have been trying test runs of what I am talking about with the pc I have here just now, it has some dedicated usb 3 ports and some dedicated usb 2 ports but for the tests I obviously used just the usb 3 ports.

I tried my external usb 3 hard drive with a windows 7 iso image file on it and I set it in bios to boot from that and i just get a black screen with lots of white text saying stuff like error contact your computer or operating system supplier or whatever it says.

I have also tried a normal usb 2 pen stick and exactly the same thing happens too.

I am now confused incase my iso image isnt right or something maybe, I used IMGburn to create the iso from a copy of windows i have that works fine on dvd, I looked at the file type format of the windows 7 on the dvd and its UDF file, so I dont know if thats maybe a problem or not when creating an iso file image correctly, maybe UDF files cant correctly be used as iso's or something ? I have no idea, seems to convert over ok but that doesnt always mean that its fine I guess
 
Pretty sure you've got to do more then just put an ISO on the external device. I created one a while ago but can't remember the tool I used.

Microsoft do their own tool for this to create the correct partition type, etc. http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/9585/how-to-setup-a-usb-flash-drive-to-install-windows-7/

I'd imagine it will work from USB 3.0. If you want to add the USB 3.0 drivers to the install image, use this method:

http://superuser.com/questions/63773/how-to-add-drivers-to-windows-7-installation-dvd

We used to have to do similar to this with Windows XP and adding drivers for SATA controllers/disks.
 
Matt-Page said:
Pretty sure you've got to do more then just put an ISO on the external device. I created one a while ago but can't remember the tool I used.

Microsoft do their own tool for this to create the correct partition type, etc. http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/9585/how-to-setup-a-usb-flash-drive-to-install-windows-7/

I'd imagine it will work from USB 3.0. If you want to add the USB 3.0 drivers to the install image, use this method:

http://superuser.com/questions/63773/how-to-add-drivers-to-windows-7-installation-dvd

We used to have to do similar to this with Windows XP and adding drivers for SATA controllers/disks.
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already tried the first thing a few times and still didnt make windows 7 install via usb 3.0 port.

The second thing looks like a nightmare to me, LOL, hard work that, maybe not, but it looks like it just to start an install :(
 
Matt-Page said:
Did you even Google this? I just did and this was the top hit:

http://codeabitwiser.com/2014/03/how-to-install-windows-7-with-only-usb-3-0-ports/
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yes of course I googled it( and i read that link before now too), been googling it for days, I have just downloaded the usb 3 drivers and dragged the drivers folder over to the usb stick that has the windows 7 iso on it in sheer hope that it would either auto install the drivers or at least get to the screen that asks to enter the drivers in but it didnt happen, just the usual black screen/white text saying error occured during windows install contact your system provider or whatver blah blah blah :confused:
 
I cant believe this man....

I have just gave another try with the actual dvd copy of windows 7 I have.
I checked the file type of that and its a UDF type.

For some strange reason using the same USB 3.0 port I tried my new external portable SAMSUNG SE-208GB/RSBDE dvd writer drive (usb 2 it is), it booted windows 7 all the way to the install
screen of windows and would have installed if i wanted to by the looks of it, I had to obviously set bios to boot from that dvd drive and then reboot but yeah that seems to work, weird weird weird, eh ??

Now, this is obviously on my pc here that has both the choice of dedicated usb 3 and 2 ports but for the tests I stuck to the USB 3 ports obviously, usb stick idea doesnt seem to want to work yet this dvd drive looks like it is doing the job.

I have to just pray now the same thing happens with the new system that is entirely usb 3 dependent, hmmm, I wonder why this happend, could it just be a one off maybe ? and wont work on the new system that is only usb 3 ?? :confused:

darnnnn, I forgot, its probably working like that because windows is already on here, right ? what you think anyone at all ? could that be why maybe even though I used the usb 3 port ?
 
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yashiro said:
Or just install Windows 10, not an OS from 2009.
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nah thanks mate, though suggestion is appreciated though thanks.

There really isnt any gains at all from windows 10 V windows 7 x64 ultimate, windows 10 boots very slightly faster and has direct x 12 support, thats really about the best features, well in my opinion anyway.

Also windows 10 is loaded with tracking features that track your every move online, that is one major reason why a massive amount of people will not touch windows 10 and also take drastic steps to block all attempts it makes to install updates to windows 7 in order to get people to accept windows 10 for free.
 
Ok, I think I have the answer as this has been fully tested with myself on USB 3.0 ports but I cant be fully 100% sure it will work 100% on my new pc which only has USB 3.0 and not a sniff of usb 2.0 or anything else, once that is tested and if it works then yes its a 100% solid fix but right now I cant see why it wouldn't work as its been tested right now on a USB 3.0 port on my current pc here.

Ok, so, there are a whole lot of free freeware tools available that will make up a bootable USB pen/stick drive but I found one I prefer which is this one here > https://www.zotac.com/page/zotac-winusb-maker < (download and save it to your pc), its a very simple case of dragging and dropping files into the little application, and not only does it make any external drive bootable it also takes care of adding the complete windows/dvd/ISO file too, I tested it both on an old USB 2.0 stick flash drive and a new external USB 3.0 Hard Drive and it worked for both perfectly.

There is one other major thing though, to trick/fool the USB 3.0 ports into working as USB 2.0 ports you need to go into your bios then go to advanced then USB then look for something called "XHCI", disable it just for now, it tricks the usb 3.0 ports to working as USB 2.0 ports.

After you are done installing windows 7 remember to go back into that same area of the bios as before but this time set XHCI to smart auto or auto or whatever your bios has available that is similar.

This was done on a pc with an ASUS motherboard but I wouldnt imagine that should make much of a difference to other manufacturers motherboard bios options too, I would imagine they should have the similar options somewhere.

I really do hope this works 100% fully which I expect it will when I try on the new machine within days and yes please go ahead and test/try yourself and you will also see it works.

Extremely handy information for people with these same problems like myself :) Good luck and please let us all know how you get on.
 
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UPDATE :

I found the asus utility/tool that creates a fully bootable windows 7 usb stick ISO or dvd ISO from using your own windows disk and/or usb stick or blank dvd, its called "ASUS_EZ_Installer_Win7", I got it from looking on the motherboards support section of the Asus site for the actual motherboard and then looking through the options to download drivers & tools, for some reason it isnt listed under windows 7, its listed under "others" for the choice of operating system and then Ultilities and there you find a utility that has the description "Use this tool to create a Windows 7 installation file with USB 3.0 drivers preloaded for 100 series motherboards.", once downloaded and extracted the utility is called "ASUS_EZ_Installer_Win7", and thats it, it works.

It add's the USB 3.0 files to the bootable saved windows 7 USB stick or dvd that you tell it to create, I just hope it works perfectly :)

P.S, I noticed you still need to go into your bios before attempting the install though and disable the USB option called XHCi before it allows the system to fully boot into the windows installation, obviously you need to set your boot drives too in bios so that the machine will boot from the drive the usb stick or dvd is in too, after its all done go back into bios and Enable the XHCi usb option, actually mines was set on smart auto, so I just put it back to that.

I know its much the same as the last post I made but at least this one seems to be more perfect and from ASUS too, so I will try that first, hopefully have the goods tomorrow or saturday :)

P.P.S, I think I would use this fix before the last one I posted as this includes/adds the windows 7 USB 3.0 drivers into the disk image it creates, so this must be the one to use.
 
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