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Seeking Advice on Windows 7 Ultimate Install, keep or dump it?
Hello,
I will ask that you pardon me in advance, but I have an odd problem and it might take a longer post to describe the situation.
I have two identical Dell XPS410 Dimension computers. These have the same BIOS (updated), Motherboard, and external devices with the exception that the second of these machines has 2 CD/DVD drives and one of those multi-floppy disks, where the first one has just 1 CD/DVD drive.
Both of these machines ran Vista for a couple years, and they ran fine. Then I decided to update the machines to Windows 7. I bought real copies, one of Windows 7 Enterprise, and one of Windows 7 Ultimate.
I did the Windows 7 Enterprise install first - I did both installs CLEAN, not an upgrade. This first install went pretty well. All devices were found and software went well too with the only complaint that I bought Office 2010 and I hate it - but overall the first install (of Win 7 Enterprise) had no real hiccups.
I then undertook the Windows 7 Ultimate install on the second machine (2 CD/DVD drives and that multi-floppy drive). What a disaster this has been - in fact, its been two weeks now and I still cannot get Windows to "see" the multi-floppy at all, and both CD/DVD drives seem to work now and then (more then, than now...)
I have been up and down the support chain including talking to Microsoft who, to my utter shock, seem to know the least about the very product they make. The MS tech had me update some firmware in the CD\DVD drives, go in and out of the BIOS (which he said seemed correctly set), and run both Computer and Device Manager over and over and over again. After all of it, nada, zilch, nothing - in other words nothing he did, or any of the web help I have found, has solved the problem.
Indeed, I think I have done 50-100 Google searches and tried every solution from modifying the registry, to various hardware tweaks. Nothing seems to work - I still have never seen the multi-floppy, and the CD/DVD drives come and go and of course, when they work, they read 1 or 2 discs and then 'go away' again.
So I need to choose a course of action and though I am not a novice, I am no expert either and thus would appreciate any advice. My question is basically...
Should I...
- Go back to Vista on this second machine. At least you knew it worked.
- By another copy of Enterprise NOT Ultimate (dont know what the difference might be...) ((...and will this really solve things, or is it hardware based?))
- Find a REAL solution. (No offense to the web posters, but really its just a ton of suggestions that some work for some, none have for me...)
Any further advice would be MOST appreciated. I am just so tired of reformatting this machine and starting over again always hitting the same wall in the end.
Thanks very much!