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JimmytheBook
Contributor
Contributor

Problem installing Windows 7 Professional - CD/DVD Driver

I have VMWare 6.5.3 installed on Windows 7 Ultimate x64.

I do not have an internal DVD drive, only a USB drive. I'm using an .iso file for installation.

When I attempt to install Windows 7 Professional x64 as the guest, the installation starts up fine. When I click "Install" from the first screen I get an error message about a missing CD/DVD driver. It gives the opportunity to search for one, but I cannot find a suitable driver.

There are two interesting points here:

1. Even when the installation tells me I'm missing a CD/DVD driver, it can read the .iso drive. It can also read the virtual hard disk.

2. Windows Ultimate 7 x64 works just fine. I only have 1 license so I can't use the Ultimate version, but it seems to install with no issues.

I've tried everything I can think of. I've tried switching back and forth between the Pro and Ult .iso's, but this also causes HDD driver mismatches.

I've also tried using an actual disk in the DVD, but got the same problem. I tried a bootable USB stick installation, but couldn't figure out how to get VMware to boot from the stick.

Any help would be appreciated! Normally I'm pretty handy (being an electrical and computer engineer) but I'm completely stuck right now.

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CaptainLeonidas
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Quick question..

Did you make sure the Virtual BIOS is setup to make booting from a USB device possible?

Intel Smackover x58-chipset

Intel i7 965

6GB DDR3

Radeon HD4870 1GB VRAM

Vista Bus. x64/Windows 7 Ulti x64

VMware Workstation 7.x User VMware ESXi 3.5.x/4.x Admin
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continuum
Immortal
Immortal

to boot a VM from a USB-device you MUST actually boot from the Plop-bootmanager iso and have the USB-stick connected at boot.

http://download.plop.at/files/bootmngr/plpbt-5.0.8.zip

The missing CD/DVD driver problem while installing Windows 7 or 2008 is one of the Top Five issues during the last few months.

You will find lots of post with same issue but no "This is it" solution yet.

Most of the times the download was bad.

If installing from DVD using the legacy emulation sometimes helps.

Sometimes even skipping the serial number during setup helps ...




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JimmytheBook
Contributor
Contributor

Sounds like I'm just gold 'ole out of luck right now.

I tried the USB, but got the same driver question.

I played around with the legacy option, as well as different random things. Ultimate works, Professional doesn't. Guess that's life.

Now it's on to my hard problem, why my guest OS, now Windows 7 Professional x32, can't find my WHS on the same network...

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