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If you (or your organization) is lucky enough to get ahold of the Windows 7 RTM, you may encounter an issue that has been popping up for a small number of people.

After booting from the DVD (or USB Drive) that contains the Windows 7 installation files, and clicking Install, you will be greeted by an error message that says:

A Required CD/DVD Driver is Missing

I pounded my head against the wall for a while on this one. In my case it turned out to be a corrupt ISO file that was causing the issue, but here are some ideas for you to try before you throw your computer out a window.

(1) Download the Windows 7 ISO Verifier tool (http://www.istartedsomething.com/20090706/windows-7-iso-verifier/). It will check your ISO file, compare it to known good hashes and tell you if the image is good. Do this first!

(2) Unplug all unnecessary devices from your PC and attempt to install again.

(3) If you have a mixture of SATA and PATA devices, try to remove and / or replace the PATA devices and try to install again.

(4) Transfer the Windows 7 setup to a thumb drive (http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-install-windows-7vista-from-usb-drive-detailed-100-working-guide/), disconnect the CD / DVD-ROM and try to boot setup from that.

If that doesn’t work then post in the comments section and I will try to help you out.

Richard Computer Hardware and Software, Consumer Hardware and Software, Enterprise Hardware and Software, Windows CD, drivers, dvd, Installation, Windows, Windows 7

Blu-Ray Logo

I am really sick of all the Xbox fan boys out there (being that I am a Sony fan boy) saying that the Blu-Ray drive in the PS3 is slower than the DVD drive in the Xbox 360. As I will demonstrate below when used with DL (dual layer) DVDs (as the *vast* majority of Xbox 360 games are) the PS3’s Blu-Ray pulls more MB / sec than the competition.

 Even these numbers give a little bit much to the 360’s drive because they don’t take into account the 100+ms seek times it takes to switch between DVD layers.

 Blu-Ray Facts:

2x Blu-ray Drive (72Mbps(9MB/s))
Single Layer (2x CLV) – Constant Linear Velocity (Same speed across entire disk)
Entire Blu-ray Disk is read at 9MB/s.

DVD Facts:

12x DVD-Rom Drive
SL (9.25MB/S-15.85MB/s(AVG ~8x(10.57MB/s)
DL (4.36MB/s-10.57MB/s(AVG ~6x(7.93MB/s)
SL(DVD-5) 12x Max (5-12x Full CAV) – Constant Angular Velocity (Speed Varies from edge to edge)
DL(DVD-9) 8x Max (3.3-8x Full CAV) – Constant Angular Velocity (Speed Varies from edge to edge)

Conclusions:

SL DVD is 1.57MB/s > SL Blu-ray

DL DVD is 1.07MB/s < SL Blu-ray

Majority of 360 games are on DVD-9 (DL).

Sources:
Hitachi 12x DVD-Rom Faq (Page 2)
http://www.hitachi.us/supportingdocs…ead%20speed%22
What is DVD?
http://www.videohelp.com/dvd
Blu-ray.com Blu-ray FAQ
http://www.blu-ray.com/faq/
Wikipedia – Constant Linear Velocity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constant_linear_velocity
Wikipedia – Constant Angular Velocity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constant_angular_velocity

Richard Consumer Electronics, Consumer Hardware and Software blu-ray, dvd