Tsundere

No. So I should try to install win7 ON an external disk (wintousb?)?

Do you think this is sufficient? Do I need to still make a raw image (I need to download win8.1 iso for that right?)? How can you tell? I haven't really used the WD passport for anything yet, I only booted win7 from lexar (and it only started 'sort of' working after usb3.0 drivers). I have both a WD passport and WD elements, which are both fixed disks? I am confused about this confusion. I thought the target was emmc and usb 3.0 drivers helps to detect that. Ok, I will follow all your instructions and report back

I see. So a windows system image backup + recovery drive is not sufficient right?

Will the data get erased on the external disk?

@jaclaz Interesting, could you please have a look at this for me (particularly the last post) http://www.easyuefi.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=275&page=2 The context of that discussion is about trying to install win7 on an external hdd using wintousb tool (which I imagine just compacts together a lot of commands and stuff). However it seems he is saying that I cannot install 32-bit win7, only 64-bit because my motherboard is uefi-based.

My motherboard(x64) seems to be uefi-based with legacy-boot support available. I've heard that that uefi version/style of win 7 only works with the x64 iso. But since the emmc drivers are only 32-bit, so to install on the internal disk I must use win7 32-bit. Therefore isn't impossible to do that uefi partition scheme you mentioned? I'm also quite confused about this gpt/mbr/x86/x64 business, I am getting conflicting advice to use mbr (albeit the advice pertains to installing win7 ON an external hdd, and with x64). However, given the recent results, I really want to focus on installing it internally

I don't understand what you mean by this. How exactly would I do that?

There was only a lexar usb drive (being used as live usb) and the internal emmc, so 2 disks seem right. They are both roughly 32gb as well

@cdob Wow! Stuff is finally working! I've never gotten this far before, I could kiss you. http://imgur.com/Nwpuz5y http://imgur.com/i8YrmuW There's still a few things I need your advice on before I wipe the disk. I'm in the process of backing up a system image of win8.1 and getting things ready -The wireless mouse/keyboard work. In fact all usb ports seem to work. -Why does disk 1 not show up? -What does the error message mean? -Which disk is the emmc? -What's the best way to find the drivers I'll need? You seem to be good at google-fu (How did you find that german usb 3.0 driver?). -What else should I do? What precautions should I take in case something crashes and I need to reinstall win8.1 (how do I preserve the recovery partition if I have one)? Thanks!

What do you mean by 'boot boot.wim'? I usually recreate the entire iso image that has both boot.wim and install.wim, then burn it using Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool. Are you saying there's a shorter way? I use DISM GUI to mount, slipstream (recurse & force unsigned enabled), dismount then msmg toolkit to create the iso. Here is the modified inf file I used the first time iaiosd.inf

@cdob Since this might be important, here are some screens of what happens when I plug in a WD passport and Lexar usb flash drive (F://) into both usb 2.0 ports. The last screen is the main change that happens when I click 'show hidden devices'. The WD passport has a total of 3 entries belonging to it, and the Lexar has 2. I am still in the process of doing the slipstreaming. I think 'Elements' is a different WD drive that is not plugged in.

-Because I thought it was sort of equivalent to 'browsing' for the driver file in win7 setup. You also mentioned something about boot.wim not needing to be modified in an earlier post, so I just made a guess. -Ok I will try this, but it will probably take another day or so. -Please see image below. It must have missed my eye before. -Yes -It was connected to usb 2.0 -Ok

-The pdf seems to imply that they only are only needed at install.wim, but I will try it. -Yes, and they are usb2.0 ports too. I can't find usb 3.0 drivers anywhere -There is no xhci option whatsoever, and no usb 3.0-related option either I think. The sevenforums link has photos of my bios menu. - I can't find usb 3.0 drivers anywhere, it doesn't sesm to be listed in my device manager or hp support site. But the laptop does have a usb3.0 port. -I booted with csm mode (legacy/non-uefi). The iso was 32-bit and when I used msmg toolkit to create the iso, it asked for bios or uefi mode (while mounting the iso).

@cdob I tried the exact method you said and it seems like my Win7 setup environment didn't detect any removable media as usual (the pdf implies that it should), the only thing it detects (after clicking 'Browse') is X://Boot. So I had an idea, and I slipstreamed the iaiosd driver into install.wim and re-made the live usb using standard procedures. Same results :(, still get the 'missing cd/dvd driver' error message and funnily when I browse in X://Boot, I couldn't find the driver files in system32 folder (even though I confirmed they were there in the mounting process). I feel like the heart of the problem might be something to do with missing motherboard/chipset/whatever drivers, because the win7 setup environment can't detect any external devices at all (not even my wireless mouse/keyboard which works during BIOS menu lol). No =(

Just a quick question, do you think those drivers are compatible with Celeron N2840? Because that is what my laptop currently has. Also, iirc, my win7 setup cannot really detect any files, even if they are on the live usb. I will try in a few hours and report back

@cdob Sorry for the delay, please see the attachments Wow, this looks promising, I'll try it out

-When I open command prompt during win7 setup and do diskpart, list disk. Also the windows setup interface itself doesn't detect any 'other' disk drive, except itself (the live usb, which i cannot install on) -No -Thanks, I will look into that

I tried those, and there were no new options whatsoever. Those screenshots are just old

Where would I start to 'spelunk'? My BIOS options as they are now are very limited. There is not even a SATA/ACHI option. See the following link for screenshots of my bios http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/376325-installing-win-7-new-laptop-emmc-2.html

Yes The 32gb emmc (called samsung mbg4gc) is under the following: http://imgur.com/EYunsvT @jaclaz Thankyou, I will have a look into all your suggestions but it will probably take me a while

Sorry I don't quite understand the question. I cannot find anything in device manager called SD Host Controller(after show hidden devices). There is Intel Control Cluster (under sd host adapters) and sd storage class controller.

It is 13-cu004 that comes with a Samsung MBG4C eMmc harddrive. Yes, I am looking for a second opinion (or different approach). I tried to slipstream using the standard method (I used doubledriver to rip x64 drivers from win8). Could you please tell me more about that Dell case? It seems like a interesting lead. USB 3 drivers? I'm positive that I tried a usb2.0 port though. I tried both x86 and x64 versions of the iso. I have tried all available BIOS and boot options as stated in the OP, including the one you suggested. The hardware id was SD\GenDisk (in dev.manager) or just GenDisk. The files were disk.inf and disk.sys files. DriverList.txt