Installing Windows 7 from External USB DVD Drive
Problem: “A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing. If you have a driver floppy disk, CD, DVD, or USB flash drive, please insert it now.”
Reason: Windows 7 loses the DVD drive somewhere in the process. Then it can't find the drivers. Changing BIOS settings or feeding it drivers won't work.
Solution:
Return to Welcome Screen by closing (x) out windows.
Swap the external drive to another USB port.
Retry install.
Repeat as necessary.
Dual Boot Tips
EFI Partition schemes can be tricky, but it's really simple if you're installing clean.
Partition the drive with 3 partitions:
Windows NTFS
Linux EXT4
Storage NTFS
Install Windows in EFI mode on the first partition. Windows should create 3 partitions in that one space:
100MB or so EFI Partition (where the bootloader goes)
MSR Microsoft System Reserved Partition
Primary Windows Partition
Insert Live CD or USB disk
Select “Other” on install
Delete the Linux Partition, then re-partition it and mount it as /
For bootloader, select the EFI partition
GRUB Update for Automatic Selection of Last Choice
sudo nano /etc/default/grub
Add the following lines:
GRUB_DEFAULT=saved
GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT=true
Close file
sudo update-grub