Windows 7 DVD unresponsive after reinstall.

[fridgitator]

I had to reinstall Windows 7 on my Lenovo laptop. I found out when I tried to register the install that the version I installed was the home premium version rather than the 7 basic the computer came with. I have ordered a new copy of 7 home premium, but in the mean time, my DVD drive rarely recognizes anything, and won't read or write at all. I never had a problem with it before. Is this a security feature in Windows, or is this just a coincidence?

 

[bochane]

Have you downloaded and installed the Lenovo specific drivers form the support pages of Lenovo?

 

[fridgitator]

Thanks for your response. I downloaded their analyzer tool and the drivers. Drive shows as healthy in device manager, but still no go. I have a new copy of 7 on the way with a clean license. Since I don't have any software to speak of on the machine, I think I'm just going to save my documents to a thumb drive and start over with a fresh install. I should know in a few days if it's a hardware problem. Thank You.

 

[bochane]

I will keep my fingers crossed

 

[fridgitator]

Update: Got a copy of 7 pro today. It took a few hours and numerous attempts to get the dvd drive to read the disc before windows finally installed. Something they don't mention on the Windows website is that gently smacking the side of a lappy by the dvd tray in frustration actually works. Please don't take that as a recommendation, but I was about ready to take the thing skeet shooting as it was. Anyway, the new install seems to have included the missing files, and the drive works as intended. I don't know how I messed up the previous install so badly, but there were so many corrupted files that it was a mess. fortunately I didn't have anything important on the thing.

 

[Josephur]

Considering DVD drives are cheap, you can always replace it. Also note that sometimes reading CD/DVDs can be actually bad RAM and not the drive, might want to test with memtest86.

 

[bochane]

... the new install seems to have included the missing files, and the drive works as intended. I don't know how I messed up the previous install so badly, but there were so many corrupted files that it was a mess. .

Very good to hear!