ddd1ddd :
Got it. For anyone who comes after me the working set up was
-Flash drive with bootable windows 7
-Asus EZ install cd in SATA ODD
When I got to the same old drivers missing screen, scanning did nothing so i browsed through the cd which was visible in the pie
In browsing, under OS---> autounattended ---> Intel ----> x86, opened that and the drivers installed and installation is currently progressing!
Thanks! This worked for me! I didn't have to browse the cd, it just auto loaded those drivers and went on to the next step! Fully updated Windows 7. Also if any of you get the unsupported hardware window after updating, download this app to uninstall it https://github.com/zeffy/wufuc. Or you can just hide the updates mentioned in the note.
"The release notes for Windows updates KB4012218 and KB4012219 included the following:
Enabled detection of processor generation and hardware support when PC tries to scan or download updates through Windows Update.
These updates marked the implementation of a policy change they announced some time ago, where Microsoft stated that they would not be supporting Windows 7 or 8.1 on next-gen Intel, AMD and Qualcomm processors. This was essentially a big middle finger to anyone who decides to not "upgrade" to the steaming pile of