Installation Windows 10 media driver is missing

While trying to install Windows 10 I get this message:

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 driver on it, please insert it now.

Before: I had Lenovo-Yoga-300-11IBR with Windows 10 already on it. I destroyed hard drive inside, put in new one (old one Crucial_CT240M500SSD1) from old laptop and installed Ubuntu 16.04. I didn't have a disk or any other way to get Windows back, even the serial is not anymore visible under the laptop. I will get it back another way, I hope. Now I want to install Windows 10 on it again, preferably as a dual boot.

Now: I resized the Ubuntu partition and on the free space, between Main and swap, I made NTFS. I get the ISO, made a quick USB format, FAT32 partition, and used WoeUSB for ISO installing on the USB. My laptop/BIOS/whatever sees the USB stick and it starts the installation process, but after language and keyboard layout menu, and before the main installation part (or maybe at the beginning of the first main installation part) I have this error message. I can't continue with the installation.

What I tried: mostly from other topics about same or similar problem here

  • Pressing "Cancel" going back to starting installation window and changing the USB port didn't work. I tried all 3 ports, two were USB 2.0, one was USB 3.0.
  • I redownloaded the ISO, than checked checksums with http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/checking-windows-10-installation-iso-checksums/ - they were right.
  • I changed the FAT32 into NTFS. Than installed new checked ISO again, slowly, without doing anything in background.

Did not try (should I?):

  • Installing Windows on USB with Rufus on Windows instead of WoeUSB on Linux
  • I did nothing special with BIOS, nor booting type nor USB 3.0 disabling
  • Formatting the SSD to 0 - no more Ubuntu on the laptop
  • Formatting USB stick slow (changing every bit to 0)

But it shouldn't change anything. WoeUSB works for thousands of people. I tried putting a USB into USB 2.0 port, error is not with partitions? and I don't think the format type of USB can change anything. But I don't know what the problem is, so maybe some of the things above will actually change something? I'm out of ideas.

p.s. This laptop has no DVD reader. p.s.2 A long time ago, I had same/similar problem with windows 8 (7?). Had to install it on new desktop machine without CD/DVD as dual boot. Had similar (I think there was something about CD/DVD driver, but I'm not sure)/same error message. And I fixed it after few days, by letting some program make changes on the Windows boot USB flash drive. It did something to some files so the installation would be possible.

Whatever it did, I can't find this old solution. I don't think it's the same problem, but I'm a little bit desperate, so I'd be happy to try this solution if anyone has a link to it.


Solution 1:

Try downloading the ISO file directly from Windows, then you use Rufus to load your ISO file on the USB drive, after which you can try it again.

I've discovered that some softwares used in loading ISO files sometimes don't load the entire files on the USB drive, but as for Rufus, I never had any issue with it.