I tried Rufus the first time with the UEFI and BIOS mode. Would it make a difference if I tried it with a UEFI mode exclusively?
If you're bios is setting on UEFI and LEGACY boot, i think not, if it set on UEFI boot only, aaah i think not again, but try it, you've to explore all possibility. windsman.
I think the problem is, that Windows 7 has no clue what his mobo is, because his mobo was released years after Win 7s last ISO was released, so 7 doesn't have the drivers needed, the question is, which drivers are needed, and how to add them, when 7 setup can't see any USB drives Might need to add them to the ISO before creating the USB, using n7lite or something Might have better results installing 8.1 or 10
I was going to install 7 then do the free upgrade to 10, maybe I'll just skip that and go straight to 10 now.
I'd give that a shot, you won't get the free upgrade that way, but at least you'll find out if that's where the problem is, and there is always MTK here on this forum to activate it if it works
Good luck! Pretty sure a brand new board like yours should support booting from and installing Windows from USB without this much of a headache I'm definitely swaying towards it being Win 7s fault, being older than the board itself - bit of a catch 22, it needs the drivers, but in order to see the USB they are on, it needs the drivers... lol
It's very surprising.....and a nasty little failure circle. Yeah I have those drivers for the SATA/RAID setup, but I can't even get to the point where I install those. I have to first get past the initial setup screen so I can partition out my two hard drives. Although I don't think I'll even need to install those drivers if I can get over my current hurdle.
If it works with 10, you can still get the free upgrade using MTK with 8.1 then upgrading to 10 and get a genuine 10 license, that is as long as 8.1 can see the USB drive to install in the first place If you run into the same problem with 10, I think you should contact the boards manufacturer and ask them which drivers it is asking for, and why, and also, even if you have them on USB, how to tell setup where they are when it can't see the USB stick in the first place
When Windows is asking for driver, just click Cancel. You will be brought back to the welcome screen. At the welcome screen, remove your USB drive, insert it back to DIFFERENT USB PORT*. Click Install Now again. The installation process will be like usual. windsman. *EDIT: USB 2.0 port
Yup. Yeah I was thinking about trying 8.1 first, but since the hardware is so new I wouldn't expect 8.1 to have what I need. I can deal with the activation of Win 10. It's just my gaming computer anyway, not my primary machine. I'll definitely call them if I can't get 10 installed. It's crazy how much of a pain this has been... Tried that a lot! I have 10 USB ports (2.0 and 3.0) and I tried the USB in every one of them with no change.
IMO, If 10 can't see the USB stick, there is something else at play, like a BIOS config, or some piece of hardware causing the problem, 99.99999% a new board like yours, with a new OS like 10, should easily be able to boot and install from USB without any issues at all