• 0

Windows 8 Help!

Asked by FMH,

 Share

Question

Grand Master

FMH

Posted
Posted

Hi.

A friend of mine is trying to install Windows 8 right now. But he's getting a driver's error. It says that a driver is missing from your computer. It isn't specifying which one.

And there's the option to select the drivers to install, but that list is empty.

What do you recommend he should do?

Thanks.

Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1120272-windows-8-help/
Share on other sites

14 answers to this question

Recommended Posts

  • 0
Grand Master

FMH

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Might be the RAID Controller driver it needs

Download from the board manufacturers site, extract and copy to FAT32 formatted flash drive, when asked for the driver, point it to that driver on the stick

I just messaged him this, and he has no idea what driver that is. And neither do I. :p

  • 0
Grand Master

Detection

Posted
Posted

I just messaged him this, and he has no idea what driver that is. And neither do I. :p

:D Some boards need you to specify the driver manually before you can see the HDDs, most are built into the Windows install disk but some are a PITA and make you do it manually

Generally it is mainly true for people running a RAID setup, but I`m pretty sure I've had a board that made me do it for a single HDD too

  • 0
Grand Master

Detection

Posted
Posted

Okay, installation has started and he has resolved the driver's error.

But now he is running low on space, so there is a file by the name of "windows.old". Can he delete that? Is it safe to delete it?

Yea, its the old install of the previous windows that windows 8 keeps incase it needs to roll back, unfortunately its not very easy to delete

He will have to take ownership of and give himself full permissions over the entire folder and files

Might be easier to boot a live Linux Distro and delete it from linux

  • 0
Grand Master

FMH

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Yea, its the old install of the previous windows that windows 8 keeps incase it needs to roll back, unfortunately its not very easy to delete

He will have to take ownership of and give himself full permissions over the entire folder and files

Might be easier to boot a live Linux Distro and delete it from linux

One more question. How can he revert back to Windows 7? He wants to re-install so he can dual-boot it with Windows 7.

  • 0
Grand Master

Detection

Posted
Posted

One more question. How can he revert back to Windows 7? He wants to re-install so he can dual-boot it with Windows 7.

In Windows 8, put the mouse down to the bottom left start screen corner and Right Click > Disk Management

Select C: > Right click > Shrink Volume

Choose the size he wants the partition for 7 to be and hit Shrink

Once it has partitioned, it will be Unpartitioned Space, to avoid confusion with any other drives etc, I find it best to Right Click that unpartitioned space and choose Format > give it a name like "New 7" something easy to spot / remember during HDD selection in setup and choose Quick Format

Once it has formatted, just boot from the 7 DVD as normal and choose that new partition to install onto

The end result will be a choice of 7 or 8 to boot into when he powers on the machine :)

  • 0
Grand Master

FMH

Posted
  • Author
Posted

In Windows 8, put the mouse down to the bottom left start screen corner and Right Click > Disk Management

Select C: > Right click > Shrink Volume

Choose the size he wants the partition for 7 to be and hit Shrink

Once it has partitioned, it will be Unpartitioned Space, to avoid confusion with any other drives etc, I find it best to Right Click that unpartitioned space and choose Format > give it a name like "New 7" something easy to spot / remember during HDD selection in setup and choose Quick Format

Once it has formatted, just boot from the 7 DVD as normal and choose that new partition to install onto

The end result will be a choice of 7 or 8 to boot into when he powers on the machine :)

Detection thank you so so much for the help! :)

This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to question listing

  • Posts

    • Onkyo Dolby Atmos AV receivers are really solid deals

      By Thiefyo · Posted

      Deal for those who want 1900 size electronics in their house? with 2026/7 hardware mhm.. not nice
    • Why it's almost impossible to produce a smartphone in the United States

      By ad47uk · Posted

      Cheap labour, the same as the U.K. China pays their people pittance.
    • The Trump administration doesn't want you to use OpenAI's GPT-5.6 without its approval

      By ad47uk · Posted

      Those people that come over here on boats are already in a safe country, if they want to come over here then do so correctly though the right channels. I was born in the U.K, my family that came over here came so via the proper means. My partner came here via the correct channels, she also became a British citizen, she knows more about this country than most of them that was born here, including myself, she worked hard to do what she does. She will stick up for this country and have done a few times, when people from her own part of world have put the U.K down. We are not going to agree, all I said to start with is that maybe Trump has the right idea with this America first thing and maybe we should start doing the same. Maybe not as drastic as what he is doing, but we do need to sort this country out, we need to sort out tech instead of relying on the U.S and others. Again you have not shown why you are so annoyed that we have left the E.U and this is what it is all about? If you don't live in the U.K and live in the E.U are you annoyed that we left your little club? If you live in the U.K and is pro-E.U, then fair enough then I can see how it annoys you. Are you one of these people who lives in the U.K and have a holiday chalet in the E.U and can now only stay there for so long? If so, then that is bad luck. As I have posted before, I have no problem with people coming here to work, as long as they do if via the proper channels. We are out of the E.U, people voted out, and maybe if more people had voted instead of sitting on their backsides the results would have been different. But they like the E.U and our government thought no we would not vote to leave. How wrong they were, surprised me. I expected to wake up in the morning and hear on the radio that we voted to stay. As I said, we are out and have been for 10 years, we are not going to go back in anytime soon if we ever do, so we all need to make the best of how things are. Anyway, this is supposed to be a tech site.
    • Why it's almost impossible to produce a smartphone in the United States

      By JohnnyQ55 · Posted

      Tim Cook: "The US over time began to stop having as many vocational kinds of skills." What's the point of wasting time getting those skills if you can't get a job with them? Good Lord, maybe he and his cohort of CEO's who exported all these jobs to China should just shut the f**k up :D
    • The official Funny Pictures thread

      By Steven P. · Posted

  • Recent Achievements

    • Conversation Starter
      jessse3334 earned a badge
      Conversation Starter
    • Reacting Well
      JuvenileDelinquent earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • One Month Later
      Excellence2025 earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      Excellence2025 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      flexorcist earned a badge
      Week One Done

  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      502
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      215
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      150
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      74
    5. 5
      macoman
      62
    Show More

  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!