Bizarre Office install problem on Windows 7

I'm trying to install Office 2010 on my Windows 7 PC but neither of my DVD drives can 'see' the program and they both eject the disk when I try to view the disks contents through windows explorer and ask me to insert a disk.

Presuming there may be something wrong with the install disks I tried them on another computer (laptop running XP) to check but it reads the disk fine and I can see the install files with no problem.

So far I've tried, without any success:
- re-booting, several times
- using the other two disks: one works fine which is just the Windows Communicator program install disk, but the other one also can't be read
- cleaning the disks - which were spotless to start with - plus I've had a really good look at them and there are no marks or damage to be seen anywhere
- using other program install disks on both my drives - which all work fine and I can see all the files on the disks

My internal DVD drive is a recently installed Samsung DVD writer and the other one is an Iomega external (USB) DVD writer (which has worked reliably for years), both of which can see ALL other disks whether they are movies, files or install programs, or anything else - and work flawlessly.

So, my PC refuses to read these Office install disks - but the disks themselves are fine and work on other computers and my drives can see ALL other disks. I'm completely baffled.

Anyone have any ideas? Could it be something in the operating system that is preventing the PC from reading these disks?


System is:
Intel Core2Duo E8400
Asus P5N-MX BIOS (Revision 0610)
Windows 7 Home Premium ver 6.1.7600 build 7600
Memory: 2Gb
DVD: Samsung TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S223C ATA drive
External DVD: Iomega DVDRW 8440E2D-B USB
Soundcard: Realtek (onboard)
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT 500Mb
HDD: C: 500Gb NTFS SATA II drive - 231Gb free space (main drive)
External HDD: I: FAT32 500 Gb USB - 46 Gb free space
HDD: K: 1000 Gb NTFS SATA II - 681 Gb free space
AntiVirus Prog: AVG Free v9

Just something to test before you return the discs...


Can you make a copy of the discs on the drive that can recognize them? Burn the contents to a CD-R at a reasonable speed. (Don't burn with the highest speed)

Then see if the coppies you made are readable.

It's not a disk problem - they are fine on other computers (I have since tried them successfully on another computer) it's my system refusing to read them..... so duplicate copies will do the same presumably?

Some drives are more sensitive to read errors than others. I've had a few brand new DVD's that one drive would read, and the other wouldn't.

It's worth a shot...

You can extract the contents of the Office install dvd (on the computer which reads the disk) using an app like winrar, then save those to an external hard drive or flash drive. Then install Office 2010 on the misbehaving computer by hooking up the external to it and clicking on the Setup.exe. You can get a trial version of winrar from www.rarlabs.com

Downloaded and ran the automatic firmware upgrade prog for my Samsung drive and it sorted the problem. As this drive is only a couple of months old it seems strange that this has such a dramatic effect - it would never have occurred to me to check for firmware upgrades....

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

Glad you got it sorted.