New in DIY

[barham92078]

Hi everyone,

Yesterday, I successully set up my first computer thanks to AnandTech Forums. Everything was smooth until recently. I used the computer until 3am, there were no problems, (I kept the computer on overnight ) and about a few hours ago when I came back from work, I realized the CD and DVD drives didn't appear anymore. It's like they are not installed. However, I checked device manager and it says that they both work properly. I uninstalled them and reinstalled them. Nothing, it didn't change anything. I still can't access the CD and DVD drives, they don't appear in Windows Explorer.

What can I do to have them back?

Thanks for your help!

 

[sykopath79]

First thing to try when troubleshooting any problem: Reboot your machine. See if the drives are still gone when it comes back up.

If they are still gone, post back and let us know.

 

[barham92078]

Hi, thanks for your post. After rebooting my computer, the drives were still gone but still appear on device manager

 

[Bug]

What OS are you running?
If Windows XP, have you checked that there are drive letters assigned? If you have a USB Thumbdrive device or multi-card reader attached, they could be using the same letter as what you'd expect for your cd-rom & dvd drives.

 

[barham92078]

I'm using Windows XP. The both drive were given D: and E: respectively. For some reasons they just disapeared from windows explorer. Everything is there but the CD and DVD drives. Yesterday, I could use both of them, today it's like they'd never been there although they appear in Device Manager and said to be working properly...

 

[barham92078]

Note: I just noticed both my CD and DVD drives, which are technically IDE, have been switched to SCSI. Yesterday, they were working, but I don't remember if they were in IDE or SCSI. Today, they are in SCSI and they only appear in device manager. Elsewhere, it's like there is no CD or DVD drive at all. For example, neither of them appear in Windows Explorer or in the system information or in the media player (musicmatch or windows media player) menu.

I read an article that says nForce switch IDE to SCSI for better performance. Would it be possible that the switch is the source of my problem? If so, how can I switch back?

Also, I've 2 HDD and they appear to be under SCSI as well according to device manager, and they are working very well.

Can someone tell me what happened? And please help me to figure out how I can get the use of my both drive back... Thanks a lot!

 

[shogunsho]

Hey I just had the same problem. Turned out to be nero burn that I installed. Just use system restore.

 

[barham92078]

Thanks for your post shogunsho. Can you tell me how to use system restore? I went to the tab system restore under system properties, but I don't know how to use it...

 

[barham92078]

I just found system restore, but can you tell me what's going to happen? Once I restore to a certain time in the past, can we get back to before the restore?

I'm wondering in case I do the restore and nothing change for the drives...

 

[moonsite]

Click Start, Help and Support. Type in 'system restore' in the search box. Choose 'Run the System Restore Wizard"

 

[barham92078]

Originally posted by: shogunsho
Hey I just had the same problem. Turned out to be nero burn that I installed. Just use system restore.

I tried the system restore several times. First I restored just before the last time I used the cd-rom and surprisingly it didn't work. Both drives still didn't show up. I undid the system restore and went farer in time. At each attempt, it didn't work; the system recover couldn't be done!

What else can I do to get my drives back? I need a lot of help!

 

[Bug]

When you say you un-installed them, do you mean that you disabled them and rebooted, in the hope that they would be detected properly on reboot?
Or did you actually delete them from Device Manager, and rebooted when prompted?
You could also try re-installing the nForce drivers. But if you data to back up, I'd find a way to do that first.

 

[barham92078]

Originally posted by: Bug
When you say you un-installed them, do you mean that you disabled them and rebooted, in the hope that they would be detected properly on reboot?
Or did you actually delete them from Device Manager, and rebooted when prompted?
You could also try re-installing the nForce drivers. But if you data to back up, I'd find a way to do that first.

I actually uninstalled them this ways:

• - I un-installed them from Device manager and reboot
  - I disconnect them from the IDE cable and reboot

In both case, I went to device manager afterward and it says that both devices are working properly although they aren't. In addition, the New Hardware Wizzard didn't pop-up as it would when it detect a new hardware has been installed. So strange!

I tried to re-install the nForce/nVidia drivers but it didn't seem to work either...

 

[barham92078]

For anyone who might have the same problem: I found why my drives didn't appear anymore in "my computer." It happened after a Windows update (it sometimes happens when one has Windows XP). To fix the problem, you need to go into the registry and delete a few thing... Check this link for more details.