Hi. We have an old PowerEdge 860 that we're trying to install Windows Server 2008 R2 onto. At present the machine doesn't have any OS installed, so we're doing a clean install from a DVD. Pretty simple stuff.

The problem is that, although the installation process starts off well (asking for language and locale settings), as soon as we click "Install Now" we're told

"A required CD/DVD device driver is missing."

The operating system has already booted from our only DVD drive(!). I've seen other people complain about this problem (usually in relation to installing Vista or Windows 7) but I've not found a 100% solution yet.

(Our DVD drive is a Hitachi LG GWA-4400N, salvaged from an old laptop. There have never been any drivers released for this device, nor any firmware updates.)

The most promising lead I have is from someone claiming that Windows is actually asking for a driver for the ATAPI/IDE Controller here.

UPDATE See my answer below... It was most likely a corrupt download. (*shame*) I will update this question when I know for sure.