February 18, 2012
I was attracted by the title as I had very similar difficulties (and still have), so I hope you will suffer this fool. If this query should be moved to a more appropriate forum then please do so.
My problems are myriad - all of which lead me to attempt a re-installation of Win7 which lead to the message "some Windows files are missing". The Win7 installation dvd looks fine.
Can I presume that my cd/dvd may be faulty, rather than my Win7 dvd?
August 9, 2011
Hey mg - Welcome to the DCT forum. 
I seriously doubt there would be anything amiss with your cd/dvd drive (optical drive). One of two likely scenarios here:
1) Dirty or damaged installation DVD - make sure the Win7 installation DVD is nice and clean and free from fingerprints or scratches.
2) Leftover data on the hard drive - depending on what types of issues you were experiencing originally, which led to you re-installing, you may need to wipe the hard drive completely with something like Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN) before trying a fresh install. Especially if malware was involved.
Cheers... Jim
August 7, 2011
I'll throw my .02 into the mix...
What problems were you having before the re-install? CD/DVD drives can be fickle and do not last forever - especially if they are heavily used, but my guess(with the limited information available) is the hard drive might be dying.
The easiest way to find out would be to use a program such as Yumi - http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/ - to install the Windows 7 DVD onto a USB drive. If that did not work I would attempt to connect the hard drive to another computer to read the SMART data and run a check disk.
