Windows 7 Beta is very stable. There are only a handful of beta testers that are reporting problems with the new operating system. Two of those problems will be addressed in this article. The first is for users who created a dual boot system to run Windows Vista and Windows 7 on the same computer while the second deals with missing DVD drives in Windows 7.
Windows 7 will not assign a drive letter to the Windows Vista partition by default. Some say this is on purpose while others think that it is a bug. There is however an easy fix to access the data on the Vista drive in Windows 7.
Press [Windows], enter [diskmgmt.msc] and hit [enter] to open the Disk Management interface in Windows 7. You should see all the hard drives and partitions of the computer system. The partition containing the Windows Vista system should be without drive letter.
Right-click on the partition in the lower half of the screen and select Change Drive Letter And Path. Now click the Add button and assign a drive letter to the partition. The Windows Vista partition will now be visible in Windows 7. (via Dual Boot Partition not Showing in Windows 7)
A DVD drive not showing up in Windows 7 can have various reasons. One of the more common ones is if Windows 7 64-bit is installed on the computer. The 64-bit edition of Windows 7 verifies the digital signature of hardware drivers. If a driver cannot be verified it will be shown with a yellow exclamation mark in the device manager.
A quick workaround is to press F8 during boot to turn off digital signing. A permanent solution would be to disable the check of digital signatures completely:
1. Press Windows R, type regedit and press enter.
2. Open the Registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
3. In the right pane, right-click UpperFilters, and then click Delete.
4. Click Yes to confirm the removal of the UpperFilters registry entry.
5. In the right pane, right-click LowerFilters, and then click Delete.
6. Click Yes to confirm the removal of the LowerFilters registry entry.
7. Exit Registry Editor, and then restart the computer.
via Windows 7 Not Recognizing DVD Drive
You can find more tips and help in our Windows 7 Forum.
Enjoyed the article?: Then sign-up for our free newsletter or RSS feed to kick off your day with the latest technology news and tips, or share the article with your friends and contacts on Facebook or Twitter.Related Articles:
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Have to admit I am content so far with Win 7.
Took some time but finally even got drivers for my old webcam which didnt work propperly under xp ;). One thing I do find strange though. When watching videos from hdd I recognised windows trying to access my dvd drive every now and then (at least it does give a sound as if reading though no dvd is inside).
Don’t forget the MP3 issue: the current build of Windows 7 has been known to erased the first few seconds of all MP3 files found on the computer. It seems that it tries to fill in missing metadata in the files, however, instead of appending the data properly to the MP3 header at the beginning of the file (which would make the file larger) it simply overwrites the first few seconds of music with the metadata (which results in a file of the same size). There is a fix available, actually it was known from previous betas and it is surprising that MS did not apply the patch to the current build.
I love the look and feel of Windows 7 but one think happen to me, my second sata hard drive is not showing in windows 7 and it just disappear from the list in the bios too.
And after returning on Vista is not there too, i have to unplug and replug it.
So i uninstall windows 7.
I try with the build 7000 64 bits and 32 bits.
Now that was helpful :) Thanks:)
great thanx its really working
You can check out this link.
I’m just glad Windows 7 is free.
I don’t wanna pay the $400.00, if I don’t have too.
i cant see lower filters anywhere, only upper
Thank u very much…it worked perfectly..
This same issue appears to be not just for Windows Vista partition but also for Windows XP partitions and, I’m guessing, older versions as well. Thanks for the fix! I had all my old files on this drive, even though it hasn’t been used as the master boot drive in years!
i can’t see the upper and the lower filters anywhere….
I had this problem and the registry fix didn’t cut it. But with help I got a solution.
The fix was to simply plug the drive into a different SATA slot on the motherboard. Apparently windows (or maybe it’s the mobo) doesn’t like it when certain devices are mixed on the same channel. What worked for me was to make a non-booting sata drive the ch. 2 master and the DVD drive the ch. 2 slave.
Good luck.
Had similar problem with DVD drive disappearing after updating iTunes on Windows 7. Did the suggested registry deletions and the restart, and the drive was back. Did – however – have to do a repair on iTunes in order to stard importing CDs again.
Thanks, very helpful advice
hey……i had a similar problem for days…….Thank you Thank you so much
May God bless you
I removed the registry entry for the upper filter, but this did not fix the problem. My DVD drive disappears after a minute of idle time. The only way to make it return is to open/close the drive door on my laptop. Another issue is that now iTunes is giving me a registry error about a missing drive. I tried to reinstall iTunes but it doesn’t fix it. Any further advice would be appreciated.
Thanks really works
its Working Thank You..
Did not work for me. :(
I’ll try playing with the hardware
Thank you, easy work around
I couldn’t find the LowerFilters on the right pane. :( Please help me… ASAP, if possible.