Hello everyone,
After dealing with this issue for a few days I was able to fix my issue.
The errors that I was getting were 1 and -1 on an iPhone4 upgrading to IOS 7
I read and tried every fix under the sun it seemed.
The fix for me was the DNS cache (even though I tried it on a different computer)
Here is the whole story...
I had a working iPhone4 on iOS6 when I started trying to upgrade to the latest version.
I plugged it in to iTunes and hit restore, after an extremely long DL (slow on my end) it failed.
I decided at that time that I would actually start trying and I unplugged all my other USB and used a real apply usb cable as opposed to my long one.
I also updated iTunes to the latest version and hit the restore button in iTunes again.
After another extemely long DL (because turns out my old verison of iTunes downloaded 6.1.3) I tried again.
Error 1 or -1 depending on which time I tried.
I then checked my hosts file and it was good so I tried disconnecting the battery and hitting the power buton a bunch to drain the power and it still failed with error 1.
After maunally downloading the firmware from ipsw downloader i tried again but no results so I downloaded the alternate version of the software for GSM phones which was the incorrect version so didn't even start before it failed.
Frustrated at this point so I get a netbook and throw a fresh copy of windows 7 onto it.
Update all the drivers and various runtimes then installed latest verison of iTunes.
checked the hosts just to be stupid sure it would work and it was good.
Error 1
So at this point I have waisted two days and I have alreadly replaced the clients phone as "I (meaning apple)" broke it.
So back on my main PC I start from square one and realise that I never actually cleared my DNS cache as it says in many instructions.
So I try that and 10 minutes later I got a brand new phone. 🙂
TLDR: Clear your DNS cache in Windows and Mac
Steps I used to fix it
Apple brand charger
back/motherboard usb port
hosts file empty
dns cache cleared
dfu mode
Shift click restore button for custom ipsw file / latest version
To clear DNS cache in Windows hit the windows key or button in the bottom right (windows 7) and type CMD
Right click and run cmd as administrator
type
ipconfig /flushdns
I fixed mine after giving up so don't give up and don't feed the "unplug it" and "hit buttons at a certain point trolls".
Good Luck.