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I need some ideas please---GOING INSANE

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Your priority should be to isolate the problem - are the drives physically broken (2 breaking simultaneously? Highly unlikely) or is Windows screwed up (very likely as everyone has stated)?

Since you've done a few things and still didn't work or isolate your problem, this is what I'd do:

(Actually, the first thing I'd do is check/reseat the connections, but that's just me)

- Make a DOS boot disk with CD-ROM drivers (http://www.bootdisk.com)

- Boot using the disk and test each drive...recognize a disc, read from it, etc.

If they work, you know it's Windows and go from there...(Hey bud, what did you do? -- Nothin' No, really...what did you do?)

Good luck

~AJ
 
Originally posted by: nick1985
Originally posted by: Markfw900
I just had the same thing happen to me (a first, this was weird) However in my case, I was switching DVD-RW drives like crazy on Win2k, and then tried to install the Sony software on my DRU-500
and then the next boot all hell broke loose. My experience from then on sounds like yours. Then I re-formatted, and installed from scratch, and it now works !!!! Strange.......
Click to expand...

how did you re-install windows when your drives didnt work???
Click to expand...


Nick, note the FORMATTED AND INSTALLED FROM SCRATCH above. I tryed everything else, and it didn't work, so backup your stuff, reformat and re-install. Let us know if that works
 
Try a different IDE cable, try different molex connectors if they are both connected to the same branch from the PSU, try a different IDE header.

Are they detected in the BIOS? If so, are they detected in drive management?

Dunno...they coulda both died in a power surge or something............

Chiz

 
Originally posted by: Markfw900
Originally posted by: nick1985
Originally posted by: Markfw900
I just had the same thing happen to me (a first, this was weird) However in my case, I was switching DVD-RW drives like crazy on Win2k, and then tried to install the Sony software on my DRU-500
and then the next boot all hell broke loose. My experience from then on sounds like yours. Then I re-formatted, and installed from scratch, and it now works !!!! Strange.......
Click to expand...

how did you re-install windows when your drives didnt work???
Click to expand...


Nick, note the FORMATTED AND INSTALLED FROM SCRATCH above. I tryed everything else, and it didn't work, so backup your stuff, reformat and re-install. Let us know if that works
Click to expand...

kinda hard to reformat and install when the damn drives dont work
 
Is the OS WinXP? If so have you tried rolling back the driver?

Did your friend install anything or was this a spontaneous hardware issue?
 
Nick, if they are like mine, they work fine under DOS, and you can boot off of them, but they are useless in windows. So, my point is, Boot off the XP CD, choose clean install, re-format and re-install. Let me know if that works. If you can't boot off of them, then you don't have the problem I did, and a re-format won't help.
 
Did you even read my entire post above?

Let me guess, you made a DOS boot disk, booted with it...both drives were detected...you tested them with a disc and they work...

Mark - I don't think he's getting the suggestion about testing them in DOS...he has no idea whether they work there are not...if they don't work in Windows, they MUST be broken completely!

~AJ
 
What channel is the hard drive on? Try switching the it with the cd drive. I'm assuming the hard drive is working. If it doesn't after the switch then make sure all the ide channels
are enabled in the bios. After you uninstall the devices from device manager just click on the computer with the magnifying glass.
 
The SW drivers are just an alternative IDE driver that offer increased performance. I believe they cause XP to treat your IDE drives like SCSI drives at the cost of higher CPU utilization, but are known to cause problems with optical IDE devices (makes them disappear like your friends). I don't know much about them b/c I only used them briefly before going back to the standard drivers. In later versions of Asus's nForce2 UDA's the option to install them hasn't popped up, so I'm guessing they've been pulled.

However, this is a Windows issue that should not be affecting your friend's optical drives in DOS or when booting after POST. If there's a problem with his ATAPI drives, its hardware/connection/BIOS/jumper/cable related. You still haven't answered if the drives show up in the BIOS under the IDE devices or whether or not they are listed during the POST result screen. If you think the drives are dead/died, bring one of your working optical drives over to his place and see if that drive is recognized. Every possible option to get your drive working has been detailed in this thread already, so if you can't fix it by replacing it or you haven't followed the trouble-shooting steps listed out so far, I'd have to say its the PEBCAK driver.

Chiz
 
I had also the problem, windows lost my CD and my DVD drive. I remember I tried a burning proggie like BlindWrite which installs its own drivers. After uninstalling BW my drives were gone. But a fresh install of the OS fixed it.
 
ok, i had him try this since he was having the symptoms listed. and guess what. when he went to delete the files as instructed, it WOULDNT LET HIM DELETE THEM.

i can fuggin believe this
 
I've seen with windows, that once it detects a problem with a device (like a CD drive), and it can't find it, for some reason with places a registry value that will prevent it from detecting anything on that device again. To fix: reinstall OR find that registry entry and edit it so it will redetect your drives.

I remember finding this at Microsoft's FAQ for something or another, but it wasn't easy to find, and you might be better off just doing a reinstall anyway.

You should also be able to go into your bios to see if it will "see" your drives before you are in windows, if it doesn't even see them while you are in your bios settings, you have a hardware problem. If it does, then it is a windows software problem.
 
Originally posted by: nick1985
ok, i had him try this since he was having the symptoms listed. and guess what. when he went to delete the files as instructed, it WOULDNT LET HIM DELETE THEM.

i can fuggin believe this
Click to expand...

Try again in safe mode..hit F8 when booting up.......
 
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