How to deal with the Install driver to show hardware error in Windows PE

When you try to install Windows 11 via a bootable USB flash drive, you might unexpectedly see this dialog:

While there are rare cases when Windows PE indeed requires additional drivers to access the disk drives in your computer, it is more likely that there is simply an issue with your USB flash drive.

To verify this, press Shift+F10 to open a console window and run the diskpart utility. When you type list disk, the screen should look like this:

Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.26100.1150

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: MININT-BAMJFOE

DISKPART> list disk

  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online          931 GB      0 B        *
  Disk 1    No Media           0 B      0 B        *

DISKPART> exit

Leaving DiskPart...

In this example, Disk 0 is the internal hard drive. Disk 1 is the USB flash drive that Windows PE has just booted from, but the reported status and size indicate that there is something seriously wrong with that drive, and Windows cannot access it anymore. Loading whatever driver will not help.

So instead of looking for these ominous drivers, try these steps to remedy the issue:

• I recommend using USB 2.0 flash drives for Windows Setup as these seem to be less erratic, and their lower speed is of no real consequence here. In general, Windows PE tends to be somewhat picky with USB flash drives; I have repeatedly experienced problems with USB 3.x flash drives in Windows PE that otherwise work perfectly fine.
• Try another USB port on your computer. On desktop computers, prefer USB ports located at the back of the case, as these are directly part of the motherboard.
• Your USB flash drive might just be faulty. Use another one.