In this guide, we are going to discuss the error “No device drivers were found“, the reasons why it occurred, and the workarounds that should resolve this issue. This problem occurs when you are either trying to install a new operating system or upgrade the existing one using a bootable installation media like – DVD or USB.
What causes “No device drivers were found”?
One may encounter this issue due to the following reasons –
- When your system is unable to identify the active partition.
- You are using a corrupted ISO image.
- The partition where you want to install the OS is formatted incorrectly.
Upon encountering this trouble, you may get an error message as well that reads the following –
No device driver found.
Make Sure the installation media contains the correct drivers and then click OK.
The error message implies that the installation media’s drivers are either missing or have been corrupted.
Fix “No device driver were found” while installing Windows
Now that you know what may cause this issue, let’s see the ways applying which you may overcome this problem on your Windows PC. Try them out and see which one works best for you.
1] Switch to USB 2.0 port
Although USB 3.0 provides faster read/write speeds, your system may sometimes fail to identify the device. This happens mostly for devices like Windows recovery or Bootable Media connected to this port. Hence it is preferable to connect the USB drive to a USB 2.0 port. This solution might appear to be easy, yet it has assisted many users in overcoming the aforementioned error.
2] Run the CHKDSK command to inspect disk errors
The CHKDSK command helps in the detection and correction of hard disk errors. It scans through your disk sectors and identifies the ones that aren’t working well on your computer.
Follow these steps to run the CHKDSK command –
- Open the Run dialog box by pressing “Windows Key + R“.
- Type “CMD”, and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter keys together.
- Command Prompt will open up having administrative privileges.
- Copy/paste the below code on the elevated console and press Enter –
chkdsk c: /f /x /r
Note: If the root drive varies on your device, replace c: with the appropriate one.
- The scan won’t start immediately afterward as the root drive is already in use. However, this command will prompt – “Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts?”.
- Type “Y”, and hit Enter.
- Close Command Prompt and restart your PC.
- The CHKDSK will take over your computer next and start doing the disk check-up.
- Once this is over, this will provide a report wherein you can check for any disk errors or bad sectors on the hard drive.
If your hard disk is found corrupt, there’s no need to apply any workarounds anymore. Just purchase a new hard disk, and reinstall Windows. Only when your hard drive is okay, consider applying the below fixes.
3] Manually create an Active partition
“No device drivers were found” error may occur when your device is unable to identify the active partition during the Windows installation procedure. If that’s the case, you need to manually create such a partition and continue with the installation process.
Here’s how to manually create an active partition and use that later on –
- Insert the installation media in one of your system ports, and restart your computer.
- As soon as your PC turns on, hit the function key “F8” to access the boot manager.
- When you are inside the Boot Manager, select Language and hit Next.
- Click “Repair your computer” and then Advanced options.
- Select Command prompt next and use your passkey to enter your account.
- Click Continue to move forward.
- On the elevated console, execute the codes below one after another –
diskpart
list disk
select disk [disk number]
list partition
select partition [drive-letter]
active
Note: Replace [disk number] in the third command with the disk number of your choice and in the fifth command enter the drive letter of your choice in place of [drive-letter]
- After you run all these codes successfully, type exit and press Enter to close CMD.
Now that you have created an active partition, check if you can install Windows without getting into any issue.
4] Format Hard Drive
A wrongly formatted hard drive may also trigger a problem like “No device drivers were found”. Since you are still getting the same error code, try out this solution –
- Plugin your installation media in one of the ports and reboot your PC.
- Press the function key to get the boot menu. The function may vary depending upon your PC manufacturers like Esc on Asus laptops, F7 on HP, Del on Dell, etc.
- Select the USB drive on the boot menu to launch the installation wizard.
- Click Next and then Repair your computer.
- Select Advanced options > Command Prompt.
- You might require to provide your passkey to access CMD.
- Do so and when the Command Prompt opens up, run these codes one after another –
diskpart
list disk
select disk [disk-number]
clean
create partition primary
format fs=ntfs quick
Note: Replace [disk number] in the third command with the disk number of your choice.
- After these codes run successfully, you may retry installing Windows on your computer.
I hope you are now able to set up a new Windows on your PC without getting into any issue.
