How can I get my laptop to notice the E drive?

December 6, 2006 12:05 PM

My Gateway laptop can't tell if there's anything in the E drive. How do I change this?

I recently got a disk to install the 2007 version of my internet security, put it in, and waited for a box to pop up... nada. The red light went on and off and then stopped, but that was all. Figured it was a bad disk, put in a music CD, nada. Went to My Computer, clicked on Devices with Removable Storage, got "Please insert a disk in Drive E." Is there some simple fix I can try, or am I doomed to deal with Customer Support (and possibly sending the damn thing in for repair)?

posted by languagehat to computers & internet (15 comments total)

Did it work before? When did it stop working?
posted by grouse at 12:59 PM on December 6, 2006

Is is a USB device or internal? Try uninstalling and reinstalling.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 1:05 PM on December 6, 2006

Update the drivers.
posted by muddgirl at 1:20 PM on December 6, 2006

There are also about a million different software problems that could cause this problem. The easiest way to test for this is to try to boot off a bootable CD, like a windows install CD or a burned copy of the Ultimate Boot CDif you don't have one of those. If it boots, it's a software problem; if not, it's probably hardware.

If it's a hardware problem, one possibility is simply that the laser's lens has gotten dirty. You can buy lens cleaning CDs at any office supply store, or you can open the drawer, and wipe the lens (it'll be mounted on a slider) with isopropyl alcohol and a lint-free cloth. If that doesn't work, you might as well call customer service.
posted by boaz at 2:58 PM on December 6, 2006

As Mr Gunn suggested try uninstalling the device :
rt. click My Computer, Manage, Device Manager, Expand DVD/CD Rom, rt.click on the device and Uninstall. Then rt. Click on your computer at the top of the tree and Scan for hardware changes.

Also it could be a dirty lens. If you can see a transparent round lens about 3mm across when you open the CD draw then gently clean it with a soft lint free cloth.

Good Luck !
posted by ithinkiam at 3:05 PM on December 6, 2006

Thanks, everyone. (Yes, grouse, it used to work, but I'm not sure when it stopped, since I don't use it very much. There was a time when I played CDs on it, but that was a while back.) I'll try the uninstall-reinstall thing and report back.

If you can see a transparent round lens about 3mm across when you open the CD drawer

No, all I see is a metallic thingie going diagonally across a black plastic holder.
posted by languagehat at 5:13 PM on December 6, 2006

In the worst case it could be bad drive hardware, but it's worth trying the uninstall/reinstall as described by ithinkiam.

Also, is your optical drive removable? When the computer is off check the bottom of the system for little sliding latches. There's probably one to release your primary battery, but there might be one or two more to release optical and/or floppy drives. If you can pop the drive out then do so, then slot it back in and reboot. If that doesn't work you could try shutting down, popping the drive out, rebooting without the drive, shutting down, re-inserting, and rebooting. The idea here is to trick Windows into resetting its configuration for this drive.

Since you haven't used the drive much I have my doubts that it's a dirty lens, but that's an easier thing to fix than a bum drive, so it's worth trying that first.

Note that I asked a very similar question a while back and have not yet resolved the situation, so I'm watching this thread hopefully. For this reason you should possibly also take my advice with a grain of salt. If I'm so smart, why haven't I fixed my own drive?
posted by Songdog at 5:41 PM on December 6, 2006

The easiest way to determine whether it is a hardware or software problem is what boaz suggested.
posted by grouse at 5:51 PM on December 6, 2006

The easiest way to determine whether it is a hardware or software problem is what boaz suggested.

That's actually very true. If you can't read the bootable CD then it had to be bad/dirty/loose hardware. If you can read it then the hardware is fine. Either way you (and I) can proceed from there. Sorry, boaz, for not thinking more clearly about that.
posted by Songdog at 5:58 PM on December 6, 2006

Doh, I just posted the comment below in SongDog's old thread when I meant to post it here:

Just as a possibility, this (i.e both languagehat's and SongDog's problems) could be the old broken UpperFilter/LowerFilter problem. The MS KnowledgeBase article on that condition is here. It's so common that Microsoft has released a mini-application specifically to diagnose and repair it. It's generally my next step if I can boot from a CD, but deleting and re-detecting the device doesn't work.
posted by boaz at 6:04 PM on December 6, 2006

If you can't read the bootable CD then it had to be bad/dirty/loose hardware. If you can read it then the hardware is fine.

There's only one caveat—if you're not sure whether your computer can boot off a CD at all, or you don't know how to ensure that it does. For example, on my ThinkPad, I have to press F12 while booting to start from the CD.
posted by grouse at 6:06 PM on December 6, 2006

Try this little program that restores CD/DVD drives to XP explorer.
posted by IndigoRain at 7:06 PM on December 7, 2006

That's an interesting utility, but unfortunately our problem isn't drives missing from Explorer, but rather drives that look fine in Explorer but don't actually work with discs. In my case when I pop a new disc in the drive spins up, the light blinks, the mouse pointer changes, etc, but then it stops and the drive appears completely empty in Explorer.

I've tried the UpperFilter/LowerFilter fix above, sadly without success, and I've tried booting with a Knoppix disc that I made for the occasion. My BIOS is set up to try booting from CD, then floppy, then hard drive, but it acted as though this CD wasn't there. In my case, I guess it's my drive, the second optical drive to die in this machine. At least it's a desktop and easy to swap out.

I hope you have better luck, languagehat!
posted by Songdog at 3:43 AM on December 8, 2006

I love you all! I uninstalled/reinstalled and it worked like a charm. I gave best answers to Mr. Gunn for the concept and ithinkiam for giving the detailed instructions necessary to an ignoramus like myself. Thanks, AskMeFi!

Oh, and I am not only an ignoramus but an idiot: when I said I didn't see a transparent round lens it was because I hadn't assimilated the "3mm across" part. Once I realized how tiny that was, I saw it right away.
posted by languagehat at 3:34 PM on December 8, 2006

Well, I tried...and maybe it will help future searchers.
posted by IndigoRain at 7:14 PM on December 8, 2006