Clean win11 install - "a media driver your computer needs is missing"

I'm trying to install windows 11 64 bit on a blank NVMe ssd. The machine previously ran win11, but its old ssd failed.

I don't have a working Windows machine (so I can't run the MCT), so I've written Win11_25H2_EnglishInternational_x64_v2.iso (downloaded from Microsoft directly) to a USB disk. Booting into that, it's at the "install driver to show hardware" dialog, saying "A media driver your computer needs is missing. This could be a DVD, USB, or Hard disk driver. If you have a CD, DVD, or USB flash drive with the drover on it, please insert it now".

The machine is a ROG STRIX B350-F GAMING motherboard, which has an AMD B350 chipset, running a Ryzen 7 5800X. It has an up-to-date BIOS. I've disconnected all USB devices bar the keyboard, and all SATA devices. The only card in the machine is a Radeon RX580.

I'm confident the SSD (a 1TB sabrent M.2 NVMe) is okay - I've installed Linux on it just now, with no issue.

Questions:

Firstly - does an up-to-date win11 installer *really* not have the basic storage driver for a 9 year old motherboard?

Secondly - were would I get the missing driver? I've downloaded the drivers from both ASUS and AMD's websites. In both cases, it's either an .EXE or a zipped .EXE - neither of which I can run without a working windows install. There isn't a "naked" driver (the .INF etc. I'd expect to see), which it seems the win11 installer wants.

See if this link is useful for a media driver your computer needs is missing

Fred Bolivar said:

Firstly - does an up-to-date win11 installer *really* not have the basic storage driver for a 9 year old motherboard?

Click to expand...

Windows can't possibly keep all drivers going back several years. Your install image would be bloated with GB's of drivers, which also get installed on your system whether you needed them or not. That's not practical.

Every new ISO, MS "guesses" what the more popular HW devices would be at the release's date and picks a set of default drivers.

Fred Bolivar said:

Secondly - were would I get the missing driver? I've downloaded the drivers from both ASUS and AMD's websites. In both cases, it's either an .EXE or a zipped .EXE - neither of which I can run without a working windows install. There isn't a "naked" driver (the .INF etc. I'd expect to see), which it seems the win11 installer wants.

Click to expand...

Doesn't this ZIP file have the basic drivers?

(from the ROG STRIX B350-F GAMING support page)
https://dlcdnta.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/05SATA/DRV_RAID_AMD_RAID_Driver_SZ-TSD_W11_64_V930296_20230706R.zip?model=ROG STRIX B350-F GAMING&Signature=SF3b~CslWuBgNqzEVSq2QJ0QvPtLPdsLUCwU-RmOXAP2Ui0crWsxjzde818wxH08wOXgp7v3JjgebP7L9BhdCesFbIZ2AnwuNtZFHFfZjtIIQY6TwJheWeiqBMEj46iSRRKGVLWY5MX6hX345s5mfv3xZfseJsNF7Kll0-Np0ATLDCayRz5Ag-WEKJ8H3lL6x7fMcSCGUiisNo0s8uYr4qQuTo0~u2W1EvVwKuBG31kUAed6iGZQp9foysslDjk~jdshCGFrBD4rlnFUiFVI7TWYhM7NW7c4gIhESNlU~q~Mp6MJ9B5wzP5-couJTd4LgO7w4Hr38ndqsiA5o20H5g__&Expires=1781544732&Key-Pair-Id=K2ITB7O97XKKCX

Try Placing the USB stick into one of the 2.0 ports instead of the 3.1 ports.

On a more general track, try a search like this:

- more text etc follows and check all of that's ok.

KevTech said:

Try Placing the USB stick into one of the 2.0 ports instead of the 3.1 ports.

Click to expand...

I was just about to comment about the USB port. Try legacy USB ports (black instead of blue or red).

Fred Bolivar said:

I don't have a working Windows machine (so I can't run the MCT), so I've written Win11_25H2_EnglishInternational_x64_v2.iso (downloaded from Microsoft directly) to a USB disk.

Click to expand...

Fred Bolivar said:

I'm confident the SSD (a 1TB sabrent M.2 NVMe) is okay - I've installed Linux on it just now, with no issue.

Click to expand...

"A media driver your computer needs is missing. This could be a DVD, USB or Hard disk driver."

If you created the Windows 11 installer USB using a Linux utility such as dd, that may be the cause of the problem. Windows installation ISOs are not hybrid ISOs like most Linux distributions, so writing them directly to a USB drive can result in installation media that boots but later fails with errors such as "A media driver your computer needs is missing."

Windows should be installed first then Linux. Windows is going to to delete your grub menu.