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CD and CD/RW drives not seen by Windows

At the end of a session cleaning up a user's PC from programs no longer used, I discovered that ntierh drive showed up in explorer and, on checking further, in Disk Management. That is, no drive letters at all in explorer and in Disk Manager as if they were not even in the machine.

I'm pretty sure that deleting the programs wouldn't have caused it; and the user says she hasn't occacsion to use them in months, so whatever happened could have been today or it could have been long ago.

I already went through the routine of shutting down the machine (Dell Dimension 4300 with XP, by the way), disconnecting the ribbon cable from each, powering on, powering off, reconnecting the cables, and powering on. Windows didn't see as new hardware and try to install them.

What, short of reinstalling Windows, is the procedure to get the drives back?

Thanks, Ron Hicks

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willcomp

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rindi

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Ronald Hicks

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Filters? How can I have been in this business so long (30 years now) and know so much and have no idea what you mean by ' filters'? Tell me more please.

I'll surely pursue these leads when I'm back on site. I forgot to mention that I left the client to run on his own the installed and updated AV, AdAware, and SpyBot. When I left the AV had barely started and had already reported a Trojan. I can't wait to hear what else; it had been two years since the client had dated or run these things even though I had told them over and over to do so. (And they don't prevent other kids visiting their own highschool age child from getting on the PC and going wherever and installing whatever they wish.

Sorry for the ramble; do tell me please about 'removing filters' including explanation of upper and lower

Thanks again, Ron

willcomp

Read the link for how-to. Filters are installed by CD/DVD burning software and, as best I know, used only by packet wrinting software (e.g. InCD and Drag to Disk). It's a common problem and I recommend you bookmark the link provided.

Ronald Hicks

ASKER

Got it. I shoulda' read da link before commenting. I'll close this out as I feel that it will take care of the problem.

Thanks. I just love ExEx. --Ron