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User profile for user: SuicideJesus666
SuicideJesus666 Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Windows 7 a required CD/DVD driver is missing..

I wanna start off by saying that I tried everything to solve this problem but failed, I looked everywhere on the internet for a solution and none have worked for me..


So my problem is as following, few weeks ago I was trying to install windows 7 on my MacBook pro late 2013 via boot camp, I started up the boot camp app in osx and went through the whole process and made a bootable windows 7 USB with all the drivers on it and restarted and booted to windows 7 installation.


And here's where I messed up, by accident I've deleted the osx partition and screwed everything up, when I tried to resume the windows 7 installation anyway it gave me an error: "a required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing.

If you have a driver floppy disk, CD, DVD, or USB flash drive, please insert it now.

Note: if the Windows installation media is in the CD/DVD drive, you can safely remove it for this step."


So I thought to myself that I'll just have to install osx again somehow and once I have that up and running I'll be able to install boot camp again, but I rather quickly found out that this wasn't an option.


What I did next was boot to Mac internet recovery and followed the steps and once it came time for me to choose the hard drive I wanna install osx on, it gave me an error that my hard drive S.M.A.R.T status is failing and osx won't accept to be installed unless I replace my SSD..

So now I'm stuck in a corner and I can't do anything, I can't get a new SSD at the moment, I gotta wait at least a few weeks and I need to use my laptop so badly and I don't know what to do.

I tried redownloading windows 7 ISO and boot camp drivers on my sister's windows laptop and I made a bootable USB and copied the boot camp drivers on there and restarted my MacBook and held ALT and chose the bootable USB I've made and it proceeded to give me the same error in the end "a required CD/DVD drive is missing.." with 3 options I can click at the bottom; browse, OK, cancel

When I click browse it gives me a list that contains "boot (x:)" and nothing else, doesn't detect or list my flash drive or my USB DVD drive or even my ssd..


So my question is, how can I somehow install windows on my MacBook given the state of my failing SSD and how windows won't be picky about that, I realize that I have to replace my SSD asap but I need to use my laptop for now, so what can I do?

Posted on Dec 26, 2016 11:39 AM

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4 replies
User profile for user: Loner T
Loner T
User level: Level 9
59,471 points

Dec 26, 2016 12:15 PM in response to SuicideJesus666

Your SSD failure is unlikely.


SuicideJesus666 wrote:



And here's where I messed up, by accident I've deleted the osx partition and screwed everything up, when I tried to resume the windows 7 installation anyway it gave me an error: "a required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing.

If you have a driver floppy disk, CD, DVD, or USB flash drive, please insert it now.

Note: if the Windows installation media is in the CD/DVD drive, you can safely remove it for this step."

This error occurs because the ISO file used to create the USB Installer (or the DVD source, if using an external Optical drive) has block level corruption. You will need to download a clean ISO from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows7 sand verify it's integrity using MD5sum or SHA1 using Microsoft FCIV tool or Mac's openssl md5 command, before you can rebuild the USB installer.


So I thought to myself that I'll just have to install osx again somehow and once I have that up and running I'll be able to install boot camp again, but I rather quickly found out that this wasn't an option.


What I did next was boot to Mac internet recovery and followed the steps and once it came time for me to choose the hard drive I wanna install osx on, it gave me an error that my hard drive S.M.A.R.T status is failing and osx won't accept to be installed unless I replace my SSD..

So now I'm stuck in a corner and I can't do anything, I can't get a new SSD at the moment, I gotta wait at least a few weeks and I need to use my laptop so badly and I don't know what to do.

If the SSD/Flash is truly failing, you will not be able to install Windows either. Can you use How to set up and use an external Mac startup disk - Apple Support and install the same version of OSX as your internal disk, including any upgrades to get an exact match and boot from this external disk. You should also run SMC/NVRAM reset before your boot from the external disk.


Once you boot from this external disk, then we can diagnose any issues further.

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User profile for user: SuicideJesus666
SuicideJesus666 Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Dec 26, 2016 12:32 PM in response to Loner T

Thank you for your reply, my SSD is indeed failing, I've been notified about it back when I had windows 10 installed on my MacBook, also I've managed to install an old version of a linux os called Ubuntu, it also says that my hard drive is failing but I wasn't able to replace it and I won't be able to do so until a couple of weeks from now.

My SSD has been failing for about 4 months now and I kept installing and removing windows over and over ( I swap between windows 7 and 10 because I encounter compatibility issues sometimes) and windows never cared that my hard drive is failing.


I don't think that the problem is from the ISO as I've tried using the same ISO I've used in all the previous times I've successfully installed Windows 7 on my MacBook, I also tried other isos just in case, kept getting the same error. On the other hand when I tried the same ISO on my sister's laptop it worked like a charm..


I'll try the external startup disk thing, I've never tried that yet. I'll download an osx dmg and make a virtual machine on my sister's laptop and from there make an external startup disk, I'll give feedback once I finish this process! Wish me luck.

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Windows 7 a required CD/DVD driver is missing..

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