TSGL: DVD-RW Drive has disappeared

[Tilman Brandl]

Dieter,

I seem to recall that you once had your DVD drive in working order? 

This would at least mean you had it correctly jumpered (as Slave or Master depending on your cabling).

In a case like that when a drive simply stops working, the first question to ask is "What has been changed recently"? Has it been connected to a different port? Did you change your data cables?

As mentioned earlier in this thread: If none of these questions do give a hint, the first thing to look for is good fitting cables: Power supply cables & data cable. I would totally disconnect the drive and then reconnect the cables one after the other (after you have shut down your PC of course). AND I would try to connect the drive into another machine - if that's an option for you. If it does work there, at least the drive would be fine.

> XP, when loading, either did not pick it up or it dropped out later on for an unknown reason <
Not quite: Before XP can pick it up (or drop it), the drive MUST be recognized correctly by the lowest-level boot program, and get listed in the machine's BIOS. If it is not, in general there's no chance for windows to connect to it.

Since the drive did work in the past, my first guess besides the cables would be the drive itself (I saw one die lately). As long as you can boot from C:\, there's OTOH no hint for a defective boot drive. What might be broken as well is the mobo's controller port where the drive is connected to (probably as a slave drive?), but I doubt it as long as all (3 ?) other drives are running fine.

Tilman

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- 
  Von: Dieter 
  An: Tech Support Guy Mailing List 
  Gesendet: Dienstag, 24. Oktober 2006 18:58
  Betreff: TSGL: DVD-RW Drive has disappeared


  Tilman ...

  I checked my Bios Setup Utility and located CD/DVD Drives.  Only 2 of my  3 
  removable drives were listed.  The ominous missing (G:) drive, my DVD-RW 
  burner, was not listed.  XP, when loading, either did not pick it up or it 
  dropped out later on for an unknown reason.  I guess it's defective hardware 
  ... probably M/B or (C:) HD.  Since I can't do any of the work myself, I 
  guess my system will have to amble over to the shop.  Thanks for your help.

  Dieter

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