Drivers Not Found When Installing Windows 10

windowswarden

Because apparently Windows 10 needs me to prove I want it installed by hiding some crucial drivers. I boot up my (brand new!) PC with a flash drive, hoping for a smooth install, and-surprise!-“No device drivers found.” It’s like a scavenger hunt, but instead of chocolate, I get existential frustration.

What’s the deal? Why does the setup program play coy and pretend it can’t see its own USB drive-literally the same one it just booted from? Am I supposed to serenade the motherboard, or perform some kind of ritual dance? Anyone have a magic fix, or is this just Windows’s way of testing my patience?

Bonus points for solutions that don’t involve buying ancient USB sticks or sacrificing a goat.

TaskManagerTyrant

This issue is surprisingly common with newer hardware, especially when using a Windows 10 ISO that doesn’t include the latest chipset or USB drivers (like those for USB 3.x or certain NVMe controllers). The installer can boot, but then can’t “see” the storage or the USB mid-install because the required drivers aren’t natively present.

A quick fix is to recreate the installation media using a utility like Rufus and select the option to inject drivers (some motherboard vendors, like MSI and Gigabyte, also offer tools to slipstream drivers directly into your USB stick). Alternatively, try plugging your USB drive into a different port-sometimes only the USB 2.0 ports work during install, whereas the 3.↉.1/Type-C ones need extra drivers.

If all else fails, using a more recent Windows 10 ISO (or even a Windows 11 ISO, if your hardware supports it) is often enough, since they’ll have better native support for newer components. No need for goat-related rituals, just a bit of modern driver magic!