Hot_Ice71
asked on
My cd rom drive just dissappeared!
I have WinXp Pro, I was fooling around with the registry (I shouldn't have done that). So I changed something to speed up the shut down and did something to my Internet connection to speed up, and change some of the automatic to manual startup services (I don't know if the details are important)
I restarted my computer, and while booting up, it gave 'drive something was updated' or something like that. Then I went to my computer, and boom! my Drive D (my nornal cd drive) was gone. Although my drive E (which is my cd burner) is still there.
So, I changed what I changed in the registry back to its normal setting (good thing I wrote down what I changed). Restarted the computer, but Drive D: was still missing. I did system restore, that didn't help.
Any thought? Thanks.
I restarted my computer, and while booting up, it gave 'drive something was updated' or something like that. Then I went to my computer, and boom! my Drive D (my nornal cd drive) was gone. Although my drive E (which is my cd burner) is still there.
So, I changed what I changed in the registry back to its normal setting (good thing I wrote down what I changed). Restarted the computer, but Drive D: was still missing. I did system restore, that didn't help.
Any thought? Thanks.
Is it listed in the DEVICE MANAGER ?
If so, highlight it, choose UNINSTALL and restart your PC. This should reinstall it.
--D
If so, highlight it, choose UNINSTALL and restart your PC. This should reinstall it.
--D
Hi Hot_Ice71,
Your problem could possibly have two reasons
1. You have probably messed with Registry entry, but this may not be the case coz system restore has failed, had it been that case system restore would have worked.
2. Or it could be with internal connections.
As a soluiton
1. You should have tried restoration of registry, well now it would be very late to do so.
2. Another thing that comes to my mind is that your computer does detects it but does not shows it, coz had it not been detected. Your E: would have been showed as D:, which is not the case.
3. Yoy should just rerun the setup, do not format, just go for reinstallation and things probably will be alright.
4. You can also check for connections by looking at the power etc., at the startup.
RTZ
Your problem could possibly have two reasons
1. You have probably messed with Registry entry, but this may not be the case coz system restore has failed, had it been that case system restore would have worked.
2. Or it could be with internal connections.
As a soluiton
1. You should have tried restoration of registry, well now it would be very late to do so.
2. Another thing that comes to my mind is that your computer does detects it but does not shows it, coz had it not been detected. Your E: would have been showed as D:, which is not the case.
3. Yoy should just rerun the setup, do not format, just go for reinstallation and things probably will be alright.
4. You can also check for connections by looking at the power etc., at the startup.
RTZ
does the device show while booting? if not open up you're case and check the cables,
if it does show try disconnecting it(the cables) boot windows once whithout it, re-connect it and boot again, windows should detect the disc again.
if this doesn't help you can indeed try installing windows over you're current setup, to be on the safe side.. backup anythng important ;)
if it does show try disconnecting it(the cables) boot windows once whithout it, re-connect it and boot again, windows should detect the disc again.
if this doesn't help you can indeed try installing windows over you're current setup, to be on the safe side.. backup anythng important ;)
You can also create a windows 98 boot disk (if your drives are formated with fat32).
Boot to this disk it will automatically create the drive mappings in DOS for both your CD drives.
Try copying data from your drive. If this works, then you know the HW is fine. It is then a SW issue. Maybe even an ASPI dll issue.
Boot to this disk it will automatically create the drive mappings in DOS for both your CD drives.
Try copying data from your drive. If this works, then you know the HW is fine. It is then a SW issue. Maybe even an ASPI dll issue.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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I know registry editor has a few places which control disk detection. I think it's
*something=maybe CurrentControlSet, I forget]
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Current ControlSet \Something [*somethin g]\Enum\ES DI
Search around in CurrentControlSet for the name of your CD-ROM drive if you can't find it anywhere, using Search...
I dunno if this applies to cd-roms but for hard drives which fail to install at boot time
win /d:f
from DOS prompt
turns off 32-bit access and for whatever reason lets a hard drive be installed so maybe try Restart in MSDOS mode, win /d:f
Also inside CurrentControlSet you can search for your IDE controller drivers and delete them (if you want), but definetely backup CurrentControlSet first because there's a good chance that'll screw things up.
*something=maybe CurrentControlSet, I forget]
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Current
Search around in CurrentControlSet for the name of your CD-ROM drive if you can't find it anywhere, using Search...
I dunno if this applies to cd-roms but for hard drives which fail to install at boot time
win /d:f
from DOS prompt
turns off 32-bit access and for whatever reason lets a hard drive be installed so maybe try Restart in MSDOS mode, win /d:f
Also inside CurrentControlSet you can search for your IDE controller drivers and delete them (if you want), but definetely backup CurrentControlSet first because there's a good chance that'll screw things up.
One other thing I just thought of, in Microsoft TweakUI there is the capability to 'hide' drives.
You may not have actually hidden the drive with TweakUI, but you may have inadvertently changed the same key that it changes.
Download TweakUI if you don't already have it:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/c/a/fca6767b-9ed9-45a6-b352-839afb2a2679/TweakUiPowertoySetup.exe
(147k)
Then open TweakUI, expand 'My Computer' and go to 'Drives', see if your CD-ROM is un-checked. If it is then check it and restart XP.
You may not have actually hidden the drive with TweakUI, but you may have inadvertently changed the same key that it changes.
Download TweakUI if you don't already have it:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/c/a/fca6767b-9ed9-45a6-b352-839afb2a2679/TweakUiPowertoySetup.exe
(147k)
Then open TweakUI, expand 'My Computer' and go to 'Drives', see if your CD-ROM is un-checked. If it is then check it and restart XP.
ASKER
Thanks everyone, I really appreciated.
Nilknarf, I just installed nVidia (the second link that you gave me) and it worked. I restarted my computer and it read my cr-rom. However, before I installed that driver, I installed hyperion driver. But that didn't work because when I restarted my computer, my cd-rom wasn't still there in My Computer nor in View Harddrives. I think it made my PC freeze (i thought win xp pro never freezes) and made it slower somehow.
Should I delete the hyperion drivers (and how do I do that)?
But, I think it's okay now. Thanks again.
Nilknarf, I just installed nVidia (the second link that you gave me) and it worked. I restarted my computer and it read my cr-rom. However, before I installed that driver, I installed hyperion driver. But that didn't work because when I restarted my computer, my cd-rom wasn't still there in My Computer nor in View Harddrives. I think it made my PC freeze (i thought win xp pro never freezes) and made it slower somehow.
Should I delete the hyperion drivers (and how do I do that)?
But, I think it's okay now. Thanks again.
It sounds like you had an nForce chipset rather than a VIA one, thus installing the VIA drivers may have reduced performance (windows is using a non-optimised IDE driver). You should only ever install the correct drivers for your particular motherboard.
Installing the wrong chipset drivers can cause big problems (some people can't even start their computer again!).
Run the hyperion driver installation again, leave everything selected. Click next and select the "Uninstall .." radio button at each step. This *should* uninstall the drivers from your system, but I stress the word should. Sometimes the .inf files remain in the system directory and are re-detected when you reboot. The old drivers are then loaded again before you can stop XP. If this is happens then you might need to remove them manually. (Just post again if you have problems).
You should install the nforce IDE drivers again, straight after un-installing the VIA drivers, then again after you restart (just to be sure!).
This way Windows should only use the most compatible drivers (the nForce ones) and leave the VIA drivers alone.
P.S. What is the name of your motherboard? (any motherboard manuals lying around anywhere?)
Do you know the exact chipset name? (Look for some writing on the motherboard itself).
Either would be usefull.
Hope this sorts out your slowdown! :o)
Installing the wrong chipset drivers can cause big problems (some people can't even start their computer again!).
Run the hyperion driver installation again, leave everything selected. Click next and select the "Uninstall .." radio button at each step. This *should* uninstall the drivers from your system, but I stress the word should. Sometimes the .inf files remain in the system directory and are re-detected when you reboot. The old drivers are then loaded again before you can stop XP. If this is happens then you might need to remove them manually. (Just post again if you have problems).
You should install the nforce IDE drivers again, straight after un-installing the VIA drivers, then again after you restart (just to be sure!).
This way Windows should only use the most compatible drivers (the nForce ones) and leave the VIA drivers alone.
P.S. What is the name of your motherboard? (any motherboard manuals lying around anywhere?)
Do you know the exact chipset name? (Look for some writing on the motherboard itself).
Either would be usefull.
Hope this sorts out your slowdown! :o)
If you have problems identifying your motherboard, try watching the BIOS as your computer starts. The manufacturer's name and the chipset name are often displayed here. You can also try some software to identify your hardware.
SiSoftware Sandra is a good program, and it can also be used for lots of other benchmarking, stress testing and hardware related things.
You can get the standard version here:
http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/index.html?dir=dload&location=sware_dl_x86&langx=en&a=
(Just click on one of the links, be warned though, it's 8.5mb!)
If you just want ot find out the motherboard name and chipset, then the shareware version of HWINFO will be more than enough:
http://www.hwinfo.com/html/download32.html
It's 1.46mb big. Once installed, run 'HWiNFO32 Program' and click on 'motherboard'. The manufacturer name will be displayed.
SiSoftware Sandra is a good program, and it can also be used for lots of other benchmarking, stress testing and hardware related things.
You can get the standard version here:
http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/index.html?dir=dload&location=sware_dl_x86&langx=en&a=
(Just click on one of the links, be warned though, it's 8.5mb!)
If you just want ot find out the motherboard name and chipset, then the shareware version of HWINFO will be more than enough:
http://www.hwinfo.com/html/download32.html
It's 1.46mb big. Once installed, run 'HWiNFO32 Program' and click on 'motherboard'. The manufacturer name will be displayed.
Try adding new hardware wizard and see if it finds your CD, if it does it will add it back and put all the registry info back for you.
Regards
Plucka