missing CDROM drivers when installing Windows 7 Home Premium

[jsbenson]

in VMWare Workstation 8. The attached jpeg shows the diagnostic that came up.

I know that the VMWare Installation manual says that OEM media like mine can "have issues", but I bought what I assumed was a legit, generic OEM (called "System Builder") Windows 7 Home Premium CDRom disk at Fry's Electronics today and was told that it would install in VMware by an anonymous salesguy on the floor.

Before I take it back, does anybody know of a workaround? The Virtual Machine I tried to install into does have the CDROM as driver E:, and the "Easy Install" that VMWare Workstation 8 said it was doing didn't work, though it did crank for a few minutes before Windows presented me with the dialog.

[a_p_]

This could be an issue with the hardware and/or emulation you are using to access the physical DVD-ROM drive. Open the VM's settings and activate "Legacy emulation" for the virtual CD-ROM drive. If this does not work, create an ISO image from the installation DVD and install the guest OS by attaching the ISO image to the virtual CD-ROM drive. You can also try to install the guest without using "Easy Install" (choose "I will install the operating system later" while creating the VM).

André