I’m trying to install Windows 11 alongside my existing openSUSE Tumbleweed installation on a Lenovo laptop. However, I’m encountering issues during the Windows 11 installation process.
When I reach the “Where do you want to install Windows?” step during the Windows 11 installation, I receive an error message stating: “We couldn’t find any drives. To get a storage driver, click Load driver.” After clicking “Load driver,” I get another error: “No signed device drivers were found. Make sure that the installation media contains the correct drivers, and then click OK.” followed by “To install the device driver for your drive, insert installation media containing the driver files, and then click OK. Note: the installation media can be a CD, DVD, or USB flash drive.”
Steps to reproduce:
Boot from the Windows 11 installation media (Ventoy USB drive).
Follow the prompts until reaching the “Where do you want to install Windows?” step.
The error messages mentioned above appear, preventing me from continuing the installation.
Expected behavior: The Windows 11 installer should recognize my storage devices (SSD and HDD) and allow me to proceed with the installation process on the desired partition or drive.
Actual behavior: The installer fails to detect any available drives or storage devices, and the error messages suggest missing or unsigned storage drivers.
I have downloaded the latest storage drivers for my Lenovo laptop model from the official Lenovo website.
I have added the extracted driver files to the Ventoy USB drive alongside the Windows 11 installation files.
Please let me know if you need any clarification or have additional details to provide. I appreciate any assistance in resolving this issue and successfully installing Windows 11 on my dual-boot system with openSUSE Tumbleweed.
Thank you for your question. I chose to seek assistance in Linux forums primarily because my existing operating system is openSUSE Tumbleweed, and the issue I’m encountering is related to the Windows installation process. Since the problem involves dual-booting Linux and Windows, I believed that the Linux community would have valuable insights into potential compatibility issues, partition management, and any Linux-specific considerations.
Additionally, Linux forums tend to have a strong focus on troubleshooting and problem-solving, and I thought the collective knowledge and experience within these forums could help identify potential solutions or workarounds.
I did cross-post my question in the Windows community, and while I appreciate their efforts, they were unable to provide a solution to my specific problem.
And I’m open to any further advice or guidance you or other members of the community may have. If anyone has encountered a similar issue or has expertise in dual-boot setups, I would greatly appreciate their input. Let’s continue to work together to find a resolution.
@Dr.P nvme0n1p2 needs to be of type 0C01 and a size of 16MB for Windows. You need TPM 2.0 and Secureboot active AFAIK.
Windows and Linux can share the EFI partition nvme0n1p1.
As indicated, use real install media, not the likes of Ventoy.
After booting up the install media, make sure you use Custom install and select nvme0n1p4 for the windows install (assuming that’s the location?), should be good to go… It’s been awhile since I did a dual boot windows as the second install, it did work, but that was Windows 7 from memory… Based on Windows 11’s requirements, I would do it first to be sure.
Doc,
I think it’s time to buy that new T500 2TB from Crucial and install Windows first and then slice and dice the rest of the drive for a fresh install of Tumbleweed. You can keep your current drive in a external case that you can boot to and have as a back up. I have a TREBLEET Thunderbolt 3 NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 SSD Enclosure 40Gbps that I can boot to.
I have win 7,10, and 11 dual booting with Tumbleweed on HP ZBooks that hold multiple drives.
I think it’s better to install openSUSE last so that GRUB is in control. Let me Warn you, Win 11 updates have repeatedly changed my boot order and 1 time killed Grub, but I was able to get it back by running the update OS process on Tumbleweed.
Whether installed first or not is almost entirely irrelevant in UEFI/GPT environments. The sysadmin has control through the BBS menu, directly in UEFI BIOS, and while booted into Linux, via the efibootmgr command. Unlike with MBR, the UEFI BIOS has enough intelligence to read a FAT partition to load a boot file. The UEFI BIOS doesn’t care who put files on that FAT filesystem. It simply reads the filesystem according to the priority established in BIOS NVRAM, then loads the specified bootloader startup file(s), which need not have anything to do Grub since BLS booting was established.
All that said, the obstacles reported in the OP here are types of questions where the answers needed ought to be available through the various available Windows channels. With new equipment or operating systems occasionally come new rules or features not yet encountered within Linux communities. OTOH, the answers needed may be on the Windows installation media or an .iso file from which one could be created.
“We couldn’t find any drives” might be Windows-speak for no available space was found into which Windows could be installed. Was sufficient freespace, or a type 07 (NTFS) partition of sufficient size, already available before booting the Windows installer?
I’ve never attempted use of a Windows partitioner. I always create the partitioning Windows needs, and I intend it to have, in advance of starting a Windows installation. 11 I haven’t tried yet, and it’s been many moons since I did a 10.
You can keep your current drive in a external case that you can boot to and have as a back up. I have a TREBLEET Thunderbolt 3 NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 SSD Enclosure 40Gbps that I can boot to.