cd driver missing in xp

Do you have a CD that you can put into the external USB DVD-RW to install the drivers for the CD Driver on the computer?
Have you used "Add Hardware" from the control panel?

Check your device manager to see if the drives show up at all. If they show up as disabled or with warnings, uninstall them and then go to "Action" then "Scan for Hardware Changes". This will make Windows rescan your devices and re-install the cd-rom drivers.

If it still shows up as being unable to start, there is a registry fix available on Microsoft's website.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060

If the drivers are installed properly and the drive isn't listed with problems, you may just need to assign it a drive letter.
Right click on "My Computer" and then on "Manage". There you will find the "Disk Management" console where you can assign it a drive letter.

as I said, no drivers in device manager, and I did the upper filter, lower filter trick.  
again as I said, I have external usb dvd drive.  but windows is not seeing the drives so how do I add the drivers and aren't the drivers part of windows xp.  so there is something not working in windows that allows windows to see the devices.  I've also tried to add hardware, but don't see a choice for cd or dvd drives.

is the dvdrw an atapi or sata device?

if atapi check the event viewer (eventvwr) whether it has problems.

if sata reinstall the sata drivers either from mainboard cd (use the extern dvd drive). if that helps to detect the dvd drive i would assume that your sata hdd is running in pata compatibility mode what normally is not so efficient and not by sata drivers from xp. you should consider to reinstall all if so.

If they show in the BIOS they should be picked up by the OS. Check the Device Manager again, are there any devices with yellow flags?

qrtraders.  this did not work.  nice suggestion though.  nice to see a unique suggestion.
js-profi, drives are atapi,  yes errors in event viewer.  yes sata hd drives in pata compatibility mode.  not going to reinstall windows from scratch.  

edbedb,  no yellow flags, not there.  

There are no DVD/CD-ROM drives in the Device Manager and no "Other Devices" either? Are you sure that they are enabled in the BIOS? If they are I would try uninstalling SP3.

I think the uninstalling sp3 is the solution to try.  

js-profi,  this is not a new installation of windows.  the dvds were working fine before I did a repair reinstall of windows going from sp3 to sp2 and then upgrading back to sp3.  I don't have any sp3 os disks except dell, which I can not use on a generic oem computer.

thanks

jon

I discovered I hadn't run the sp3 upgrade, so I ran that and have the same problem.  not sure how to proceed, might just upgrade to vista and then win 7

Can you try disconnecting one of the drives to see what happens?

qrtraders.  this did not work.

Did you go through the entire procedure of replacing the registry files as per the article--

default, config, system, sam & security

from the x:\windows\repair folder to the x:\windows\system32\config where x: is the letter of your CD drive.

Basically what happens is that this procedure strips the windows installation to really barebones windows (quite like safe mode, but it is sort of permanent).

If that didn't work, well it is some problem with Windows not being able to identify your hardware & a repair install or fresh format n then install will be the only option as far as I think.

Make sure you have your SATA / third party disk drivers in place.

Ravi.

can you post the errors you found in event viewer?

new installing cannot solve errors on existing system. deactivating cd drivers is not destroying anything. the hardware assistant will allow you at any boot to reinstall or simply activate existing drivers.

step 1 : can you test if the drives work ok? on another system, or by booting froom a bootable cd ? if ok -->
step 2 : in device manager>view tab, click "show hidden devices" and delete all references to cd drives, reboot and test
step 3  : update the chipset drivers for your mobo

qrtrader:  I ran the first part as you suggested.  but that sounds like I would then have to reinstall applications.  doing a repair reinstall is what led to this problem.  I guess it is reformat.  

js- profi:  just too many errors to go through

nobus:  drives just fine. no hidden dvd drives

too many _different_ errors in event viewer? post the youngest and the one where atapi is involved.

the errors in the event viewer are your most concrete hint what is going wrong.

>>   drives just fine  <<  how do you you know?
can you boot from a bootable cd?

yes

please give some info on what works - and what not - it's not a guessing game...

re doing repair install of windows solved the problem, drives are back thanks for all the help

good suggestions,

without drives?  i wonder how..