eMMCdrive driver for Windows XP/Vista/7
Posted: 24 May 2021, 02:23
To give an insight about this thread, here are specs of a laptop that I have that will tie into this.
Brand: Acer
Model: Aspire R3-131T 2-in-1 (It can be used as a standard laptop or as a tablet)
Hardware: Intel Celeron N3060, most likely a Cherry Hill(or Cherry Trail) processor.
OS support: Windows 7 (certain models), 8.1, and 10.
Hard drive: Hynix HBG4e eMMC drive (I believe this is a type of SSD). No SATA connectors.
Here is a short FAQ to hopefully answer some questions.
Q: Why can only certain models of the Aspire R3-131T run Windows 7?
A: It is because of the drive included. If you have a standard hard drive or a Solid State Drive with SATA connector, you will be fine. If you do not, you are currently stuck as there is no driver available.
Q: Can I run Windows XP and Vista?
A: If you have SATA connectors, sure, but good luck with getting most drivers such as graphics to work.
Q: Will Vista work on this hardware? Won't it suffer from the Haswell and later bug?
A: From my experience of running Vista on an HP 15-f233wm with the same (or very similar) hardware, it does not appear to suffer from the bug that affects Haswell and later.
Q: What is going on here?
A: Research and Development on generic eMMC drivers.
With that out of the way, here is the reasoning behind the thread. Basically, if you have a laptop like the one I listed above with no SATA, only an eMMC drive, and try to run the Windows 7 installation media, it will not work, even with the USB 3.0 drivers slipstreamed in (which is required). What will happen is that the installation media cannot detect the eMMC drive, making you unable to proceed.
What this means is that an eMMC driver is required, however, little to none eMMC drive manufacturers make drivers that support Windows 7. This is where Windows 8.1 comes into play. If you install vanilla 8.1 to an eMMC drive, it will install just fine. This means that Windows 8/8.1 includes a generic eMMC driver. My question is can we port that to Windows XP/Vista/7 in order to be able to install those systems to eMMC drives?
People have successfully backported the Windows 8/8.1 generic USB 3.0 driver to the aforementioned OSes so I see no reason why it wouldn't work for the eMMC driver. Of course, since the driver would be disliked by the Windows Installer, it would mean having to install Windows 7 through DISM using Mini-Windows 10 (Medikat).
I have attached below all the files that I believe are related to the generic eMMC driver. My knowledge on porting drivers is extremely limited so I don't know how much help I'd be other than just grabbing additional files from my 8.1 installation.
In summation, I believe the generic eMMC driver can be backported to XP/Vista/7, but how I do not know. One thing I do know is that the driver will most likely be "locked" and have to be "unlocked". This was the case for the generic USB 3.0 driver that they got backported successfully to XP/Vista/7.
Brand: Acer
Model: Aspire R3-131T 2-in-1 (It can be used as a standard laptop or as a tablet)
Hardware: Intel Celeron N3060, most likely a Cherry Hill(or Cherry Trail) processor.
OS support: Windows 7 (certain models), 8.1, and 10.
Hard drive: Hynix HBG4e eMMC drive (I believe this is a type of SSD). No SATA connectors.
Here is a short FAQ to hopefully answer some questions.
Q: Why can only certain models of the Aspire R3-131T run Windows 7?
A: It is because of the drive included. If you have a standard hard drive or a Solid State Drive with SATA connector, you will be fine. If you do not, you are currently stuck as there is no driver available.
Q: Can I run Windows XP and Vista?
A: If you have SATA connectors, sure, but good luck with getting most drivers such as graphics to work.
Q: Will Vista work on this hardware? Won't it suffer from the Haswell and later bug?
A: From my experience of running Vista on an HP 15-f233wm with the same (or very similar) hardware, it does not appear to suffer from the bug that affects Haswell and later.
Q: What is going on here?
A: Research and Development on generic eMMC drivers.
With that out of the way, here is the reasoning behind the thread. Basically, if you have a laptop like the one I listed above with no SATA, only an eMMC drive, and try to run the Windows 7 installation media, it will not work, even with the USB 3.0 drivers slipstreamed in (which is required). What will happen is that the installation media cannot detect the eMMC drive, making you unable to proceed.
What this means is that an eMMC driver is required, however, little to none eMMC drive manufacturers make drivers that support Windows 7. This is where Windows 8.1 comes into play. If you install vanilla 8.1 to an eMMC drive, it will install just fine. This means that Windows 8/8.1 includes a generic eMMC driver. My question is can we port that to Windows XP/Vista/7 in order to be able to install those systems to eMMC drives?
People have successfully backported the Windows 8/8.1 generic USB 3.0 driver to the aforementioned OSes so I see no reason why it wouldn't work for the eMMC driver. Of course, since the driver would be disliked by the Windows Installer, it would mean having to install Windows 7 through DISM using Mini-Windows 10 (Medikat).
I have attached below all the files that I believe are related to the generic eMMC driver. My knowledge on porting drivers is extremely limited so I don't know how much help I'd be other than just grabbing additional files from my 8.1 installation.
In summation, I believe the generic eMMC driver can be backported to XP/Vista/7, but how I do not know. One thing I do know is that the driver will most likely be "locked" and have to be "unlocked". This was the case for the generic USB 3.0 driver that they got backported successfully to XP/Vista/7.