help !

June 4, 2007 5:46 AM

Computer detects a cd drive thats not actually there.

im using xp home, i have maxtor 6v160e0 hard drive which is detected both in the hard drive C: and cd drive d:
(which isnt even a cd drive at all) when i replug in my actual dvd/cd drive it calls it either e: or f: depending on its mood, also the real dvd/cd drive is jammed with nothing inside and the light constantly on and wont eject... help ?

posted by sgt.serenity to computers & internet (7 comments total)

The fact that your hard drive is both C and D just means that it has two partitions. As far as Windows is concerned, they are two separate hard drives.

The CD rom drive will move based on what drive letters are available when the machine is booted. So if you have a USB key installed, the computer may assign it E, and so the CD Rom has to take F.

To avoid this complication, I usually just assign the CD rom drive a letter (L, generally) and don't worry about it.

As for the CD rom drive not ejecting, there is a small hole in the front. Stick a pin or something in there far enough, and it will eject if the door is not physically blocked.

This often means that the motor or drive train for the door is shot, and you should replace the drive. They're pretty cheap these days.

Hope this helps.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 5:53 AM on June 4, 2007

the thing is when everythings plugged in - i have 2 cd drives and only one exists.
posted by sgt.serenity at 5:58 AM on June 4, 2007

have you installed a virtual CD drive? which allows you to mount images as a CD?
posted by moochoo at 6:01 AM on June 4, 2007

mount images as a cd ?
posted by sgt.serenity at 6:04 AM on June 4, 2007

im trying to think of a simple way to explain it but im stuck :/

maybe if you tell me everything that is running in your system tray [the bit next to the clock] can prob idtenity if you running a virtual cd-drive
posted by moochoo at 6:20 AM on June 4, 2007

Was this CD drive recently installed? One thing you might want to check is your jumper setting on it if so. Most drives come preset to Cable Select (CS) these days, but I often have better luck dropping them back to Master/Slave configurations. (this will be the case especially if it is run off the same ribbon cable as your Maxtor HD...if it is in a master/slave setting....check both drives in that case to be sure)

If this PC hasn't been modified since it was purchased, then my suggestion is removing these devices in the device manager to let windows redetect them. The best way to do this is in safemode (press F8 right as windows xp is starting to get a menu). Once at the desktop right click on My Computer and select "Manage" then select the Device Manager. Click View/Show Hidden Devices...then proceed to remove all instances of CDROMs and HDs that you see...also remove any IDE controllers too....don't worry, these will get redetected when you launch windows again normally.

The last place to check, before looking in the direction of a hardware issue, is the BIOS. I can't really give you a solid set of steps here as they vary between manufacturers...(this is the Press F2, DEL, etc message you see when the pc is first powered on at the POST). From here, basically you want to see if the drives are being detected properly. If they check out fine in the BIOS, but not in Windows...then you're looking at possibly going back to Windows again for a closer look.

It is possible, yet difficult to tell yet, that your cdrom drivers could be corrupted. This will involve steps to remove bad driver stacks (usually from CD burning or DVD software).
posted by samsara at 6:24 AM on June 4, 2007

I think I see. You have one hard drive and two CD rom drives, one of which is USB. Correct ?

It might be this: Windows sometimes gets confused and tries to assign two drives to one letter.

Try this. Before you plug in your second cd drive, goto "control panel", then, "administrative tools", then "Computer Management", and finally select disk management.

You should see only one CD rom drive. Right click on it and choose "Change drive letter or path". An then change it to some other letter you aren't using.

Then plug in your other drive and see if that works. You can also reassign it's letter to something else.

This screen will also tell you definitively if you have one hard disk and two partitions. If you do, then D will be unavailable for use by the any other drive. But it doesn't matter much.

However if the door is stuck with the light on, that usually indicates something bad has happened to the drive.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 6:26 AM on June 4, 2007