Iphone 4 4.3.1 firmware problems

I am having numerous problems with the new firmware upgrade. Initially it took 4 download and update sessions to actually completely install it. After that the iPhone wouldnt show in iTunes or in windows, several restores finally fixed that issue. Somewhere in that process any backup of my data was lost, annoying but replaceable. Now my current issue is I cannot sync anything to the iPhone. After connecting it to computer it starts to sync but while syncing music I get an error, The required disk cannot be found. I looked and the iPhone is not showing in computer. After this I uninstalled and reinstalled every piece of apple software on my computer, including apple mobile device service. This however solved nothing, iPhone still does not appear in computer panel but does in iTunes and will not sync anything.
Is anyone having similar issues or have found a solution to similar issues? May not be what apple would recommend but the next solution i can think of is downgrading the firmware to 4.3. The iPhone worked perfectly with 4.3 and has only ever had problems with 4.3.1, nothing else has changed. Any advice on this issue would be greatly appreciated.
Iphone 4 Windows 7