Windows 7 upgrade problems/ CD drive unrecognized.

[fesa89]

I got a 'free upgrade to windows 7' when i bought my acer aspire 4810T last year. I ordered the windows 7 upgrade disks a few months ago and tried to upgrade to windows 7 but am now stuck on the last stage of the process, as my cd drive is no longer recognized by my laptop (and i need to insert the windows 7 upgrade disk to finish the upgrade) .

I'm not really computer literate, but I understand the basics, so I took my laptop into techguys at PC world where i purchased it, as i have been paying £12 monthly insurance since i bought my laptop in september. I was told by the 'professionals' that my laptop is basically knackered because I failed to burn a factory restore disk when I first set up my computer.

The issue is, I bought an external hard drive to back up my computer and when I ran the first full backup the reminder to burn a factory default disk went away so I presumed the external hard drive had done the job. The techguys said this was just a coincidence, and I still should have burned the restore disks.

Apparently, after too many phonecalls and arguments with techguys, I now have to pay acer for the factory restore disks. I do not want to do this. The windows 7 issue is not my main worry- I am greeted with a window asking me to complete my windows 7 upgrade and I just cross this off.. I just really need my CD drive to function again. Ive ran various upgrades and uninstalled the driver and tried everything I can think of but as I said i'm no expert on computers.

Ideally I would like to 'go back' to vista but I dont think this will be possible as i've already completed 2 phases of the 3 stage windows 7 upgrade.

I just want my cd drive to work again! Windows 7 ruined my computer! Can somebody please help me

 

[mibix19]

I dont think Windows7 is the cause of your cd drive not being recognized. Did the Tech guys say what difference a restore disc will make if your CD drive is not working as you still need the drive for this. I think the tech guys should check your CD drive for you, and replace it

 

[fesa89]

Yeah, they said the CD drive is not compatible with windows 7. And a few people have had this problem with my laptop model. But my tech guys insurance only covers my hardware and because I failed to burn my factory default disks, its my fault and its a software problem so they are brushing me off.

 

[Wamphryi]

I find it very hard to believe that a CD Drive is not compatible with Win 7. It is possible I suppose but I fail to see how it could be. The Drive should work with the most fundamental of drivers and if it worked for Vista then it should work for Win 7. It sounds like you are being stuffed around. If you can get hold of a USB based external DVD Drive then try using that. I would think that it would some kind of hardware fault that is causing your issue and your Tech guys are trying to duck. You should be able to load any OS you pretty much want onto a Laptop though you may end up scratching for some drivers. But CD/DVD drive should be no dramas.

 

[mibix19]

Go back to the tech guys and say if they dont sort it, you will go to trading standards, as it is not fit for purpose (i.e. Windows7) If your machine is not compatible for windows7(which I doubt as it is only a few months old) , they should have told you and not given the free upgrade. Not making restore discs has nothing to do with it. I think Wamphryi is right though and it is a hardware fault and the tech Guys need to be told to get on with it

 

[pat]

I guess that you receive a warning telling you the you need CD/DVD drivers in order to process? If it is the case, it is mainly a screw up by Microsoft. What that means is, Windows 7 cannot find the drivers for you IDE controller, probably because it is set as RAID (uncommon on laptop but exist in some) or as AHCI. This is in the BIOS. All you need to do is to find the chipset brand inside (Intel, nVidia or ATI(AMD)) and download the correct RAID or AHCI driver. Or, if you want to take the simple way, just set the controller to normal IDE (or compatible, or anything else that is not RAID or AHCI) and you'll be good to go.

I saw this problem with many people because the way Microsoft put that, it leads to think that you actually need a driver for your CD/DVD while it ask a cd/dvd with drivers on for the controller.

 

[Wamphryi]

Im not sure that it would be the BIOS settings though I wouldnt rule that out completely. If it was the case then the problem would have surfaced at install I would have thought and this user is saying the setup is partially done. Also in my experience OS issues with IDE etc tend to pop up more when you are trying a dated OS on newer hardware not the other way around. I have noticed with Win 7 when it is unhappy with a drive it tends to drop it from the system completely. I tried copying data of a ext HDD with bad sectors and Win 7 simply dropped it from My Computer when it decided the drive is faulty (and it is faulty). Another possibility is the install disk itself. On one occasion we had a laptop in, that had a faulty install disk but on face value it looked like the DVD Drive itself was at fault.

 

[pat]

If the setup is partialy done, then the drive is OK, the Install is OK up to the point where it try to find a drive to install to. Since the controller use an advanced mode, W7 install needs drivers to keep going and talk to the HDD.

I've just reinstalled W7 to my new RAID 0 array. all went good to the point where I got the message telling me to install CD/DVD drivers to continue. The driver needed was not for the DVD drive, but because the IDE controller was set to an advanced mode and W7 did need driver to talk to the controller. Just popping an USB memory stick with proper ATI driver did the trick. W7 installed the drivers, my HDD just appears in the list, and I just had to partition it to my needs

 

[tanjasimeonov]

I dont think Windows7 is the cause of your cd drive not being recognized. Did the Tech guys say what difference a restore disc will make if your CD drive is not working as you still need the drive for this. I think the tech guys should check your CD drive for you, and replace it