CD Drives lost...pls help !!!!

[plomon]

hi guys,
My CD-drives suddenly disappeared from "My Computer". Although they are physically attached to the system, they are not detected by the OS, i guess. On checking the hardware profiles(i.e., Device Manager) too, there is yellow exclamatory mark adjacent to the CD drive icons. So, simply my cd drives are lost on the system. pls tell me a method to recover the lost drives. The lost drives are H: and I:, which are not shown by "My Computer".

Pls click the link below, to view the screenshot of "My Computer".

http://img218.echo.cx/img218/5525/mycomp3ke.jpg

[edfair]

Can be a case of the hard drive controller drivers getting corrupted. Fix is to reload the drivers off the M/B CD.
If your OS is 98SE and you have Intel hard drive controller chips it is a matter of the .inf files for the Intel chips not in the OS. Fix is to download the Intel *.inf files from their site.
If the chips are part of a VIA chipset you probably should download a later set of drivers.

[rjfvillarosa]

Go back to the Device Manager and right click each CD and uninstall, now restart windows and see if windows detects the drives and auto installs them. If this doesn't happen you may need to reset the BIOS.
Did any thing happen just prior to the devices stopping working like a power failure or anything similar?

[plomon]

Originally Posted by rjfvillarosa Go back to the Device Manager and right click each CD and uninstall, now restart windows and see if windows detects the drives and auto installs them. If this doesn't happen you may need to reset the BIOS. Did any thing happen just prior to the devices stopping working like a power failure or anything similar?

Nothing serious hppnd before the CD drives disappeared. i encountered this kind of problem once in the past and had come to know(then), that also the drives are physically(i.e., from hardware point of view) working, the windows is unable to detect(possibly) the path to the installed drivers(again possibly) in the Win dows Registry. I figured out till that phase myself. Now, what i wanted to know what kind of modifications could be to the system registry so as to get back the drives.

Can be a case of the hard drive controller drivers getting corrupted. Fix is to reload the drivers off the M/B CD

pls don't ask me to install new drivers, as it's insane to insert a CD into the drive when the drive itself is not being detected by the OS.

Here, once again i'm posting the screenshot of "My Computer". pls have a look at it:

http://img216.echo.cx/img216/3145/mycomp6nu.jpg


From the above picture, it's clear that my CD drives ( Drive H: and Drive I: ) are not shown. The CD drives are also seen in the Device Manager. So, a screenshot of my device manager is given below. pls check it out to get an idea.


http://img255.echo.cx/img255/9554/devices6hl.jpg


The yellow marks adjacent to the CD drives can be noted(an indication of not being detected).

if i can get a solution for the 'lines marked in bold' above, that may possibly clear my problem...any other suggestions may also help me....pls give them

[rjfvillarosa]

Did you do as I suggested, uninstall the drives and reboot windows?
I doubt very much if this is a registry issue, you have a hard ware fault.


can you make the pictures a little smaller it makes the thread easier to view

[plomon]

Originally Posted by rjfvillarosa Did you do as I suggested, uninstall the drives and reboot windows? I doubt very much if this is a registry issue, you have a hard ware fault. can you make the pictures a little smaller it makes the thread easier to view

I did exactly what u told me to do....I uninstalled one of the CD-Drives......unfortuately the result is "simply no change". In three simple steps this is what happened :

Step1: Uninstalled the Samsung CD-RW Drive.
Step2: The drive disappeared from the Device Manager.
Step3: Restarted the system.

Now, after opening the Device Manager, I find the drive once again reappearing with the same Yellow Mark adjacent to it(as previously shown in the screenshots)....and the "My Computer", ofcourse isn't showing any valid CD-Drives(as previousy shown in the screenshots)

[rjfvillarosa]

I am still inclined to think this is a hardware fault, do you have a spare IDE cable you can swap in?
What IDE are you using at the moment and how do you have the jumpers set?
I think I would also try removing the drives and testing them one at a time incase one of the drives is faulty and affecting both.

[plomon]

Originally Posted by rjfvillarosa I am still inclined to think this is a hardware fault, do you have a spare IDE cable you can swap in? What IDE are you using at the moment and how do you have the jumpers set? I think I would also try removing the drives and testing them one at a time incase one of the drives is faulty and affecting both.

man, i guess it's time to tell u how the prob. actually cropped up.....a few days back i installed a software called as Easy CD Creator v5.....this software has some feature called as "Direct CD"(god knows what is this feature about)....and during installation, it asked me whether to install this feature or not.....being not having enough knowledge abt this feature, i said "YES" to it......unfortunately, this feature of the software shouldn't be installed on WinXP(i came to know this from a warning messg issued by WinXP - saying that the software didn't pass the Compatibility/Certificate Test) and i installed it forcefully....now during installation it replaced all the current drivers/files of my external storage devices(i.e., CD Drives).....being scared of this sea change occuring in the change of system files, i planned to remove the entire software along with the Direct CD feature.....and i did it....now, after removing the software and restarting the system, i found to ny surprise that the drives disappeared.....from then onwards, i guess the story is known to u......so, the problem isn't really related to the hardware at all.....coz, while every system start, the drives are detected by the BIOS.....problem occurs with the WinXP OS and the drivers it has in it's system files database....i hope u got the root of the problem.....pls give me a suggestion, if possible.

[rjfvillarosa]

Bloody hell... Plo I wish you had said this before, Ok no harm done. Now I have seen threads here at the Mech on this very subject involving that particular software.
Plo give me sometime to research it, I have read about it but never experienced it or dealt with it, don't jump the gun yet but I think you might be looking at a repair install which is not as dangerous as it sounds, all it does is replace the system files.
There might even be a fix for it via the Microsoft knowledge base or EzyCD creators website.
Give me a while and I will be back to you, I am sure someone here must remember one of the threads on this.

[Panama Red]

Looks like some major issues with Easy CD Creator/Direct CD and XP.

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;310628

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;314060

Best to just remove it, make the necessary registry changes suggested in the KB article and switch to Nero.

[plomon]

Originally Posted by Panama Red Looks like some major issues with Easy CD Creator/Direct CD and XP. http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;310628 http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;314060 Best to just remove it, make the necessary registry changes suggested in the KB article and switch to Nero.

MY PROBLEM IS SOLVED


hey guys thx a lot, special thx to panama red...u'r solution did wonders man....the second link u provided has all the necessary stuff i needed....it exactly matches my problem...so i followed the steps given by the microsoft.....i removed the specified values of the registry, restarted my system.......now the drives have reappeared....hey rjfvillarosa, thx for u'r effort too......i guess u already went through the manual provided in the microsoft link of panama.....i discovered new things.....now, i'm out of trouble......thx to all responders.

here are the new screenshots:

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...s_reappear.jpg


http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...ves_appear.jpg

[rjfvillarosa]

Way to go PR I knew I had seen that fix somewhere, I will add those links to my windows tools.

[Panama Red]

Nice work guys! Amazing what can happen when we all share together.

[glc]

The upper/lower filter issue is one reason I won't touch Roxio burning software with a 10 foot pole.