Installing a Windows virtual machine fails with the error: A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing

Products

• VMware Desktop Hypervisor
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• You cannot install Windows in a virtual machine.
• Installing a Windows virtual machine fails.
• Creating a Windows virtual machine using the New Virtual Machine wizard fails.
• When installing a Windows virtual machine from the ISO/DMG or CD/DVD, you see this error in the virtual machine console:
  
  A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing. If you have a floppy disk,
  CD, DVD, or USB flash drive, please insert it now.
  [OR]
  A media driver your computer needs is missing. This could be a DVD, USB or Hard Disk driver.
  If you have a CD, DVD, or USB flash drive with the driver on it, please insert it now.
  
  
• You may experience this issue on:
  
  
  • Windows 2008 R2
  • Windows 2008
  • Windows 7
  • Windows Vista
  • Windows 8
  • Windows Server 2012
    

Environment

VMware Workstation 6.x (Linux)
VMware Fusion 2.x
VMware Workstation 7.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 10.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation 7.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation 8.x (Windows)
VMware Fusion 5.x
VMware Workstation 8.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 9.x (Windows)
VMware Fusion 7.x
VMware Workstation Pro 12.x (Windows)
VMware Fusion 6.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1
VMware Fusion Pro 8.x
VMware Workstation 6.x (Windows)
VMware Fusion 3.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.7
VMware Workstation 9.x (Linux)
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5
VMware Workstation 10.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation Pro 12.x (Linux)
VMware Fusion 4.x
VMware Workstation 11.x (for Windows)
VMware Fusion 8.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5
VMware Workstation 11.x (for Linux)

Resolution

This issue occurs due to a truncated download, possibly caused by a proxy server, or issues with the download caching server when the ISO file was originally downloaded. Most likely, the size of the ISO file that was actually downloaded is different from the size that is given on the download site.

To resolve this issue, compare the download ISO file size on Microsoft's website to the size of the file that was actually downloaded.

If there is any discrepancy, try to download the ISO in a way that bypasses the proxy server (if you are using one) or download it from another location and compare the size of the download and MD5 or SHA1 hash figures with those on Microsoft's site. 

Additional Information