I reinstalled Windows but...

[Nebraskan4Texas]

my D: and E: drives don't work. What did I do wrong and what can I do to fix it? I'm not very computer savvy so go easy on me.

 

[highbury]

what kind of drives are they? hard drives or cds?

also, you could always go to your control panel, system, hardware, device manager, and see if the drives show up under disk drives or dvd drives, etc.

 

[Nebraskan4Texas]

One is the CD-ROM drive and the other is the CD burner.

 

[highbury]

I would assume you did not mess with the actual drives, so I think it's a problem with the drivers. If you restart, and you use XP, it should automatically detect the drives and just install the drivers for you.

Have you gone to the Control Panel and seen what is listed under the DVD/CD-Rom Drives menu? You just might need to reinstall a broken driver.

 

[Nebraskan4Texas]

There's nothing listed under CD drives.

 

[highbury]

well, that is odd. you can try to go your computer's manufacturer's website and download the cd-rom drivers. or, you can get the drivers from the cd drive manufacturers. i haven't really heard of this problem occurring unless you have faulty drivers or a general messed installation.

my advice now is to go grab a beer, some chips, and see how installing new drivers works out. sorry about the lack of help, but this is not as easy as finding a visor.

 

[Nebraskan4Texas]

I guess the computer recognizes they exist but they don't work when I insert a CD. Wow, I'm a total idiot.

 

[TexasOwnzYou]

are they showing up under "Unknown Devices" in the device manager?

 

[Nebraskan4Texas]

Nope. They're recognized as CD-ROM drives. I'm feeling dumber by the minute...

 

[jcdenton]

Are you sure they're showing up in the Device Manager as CD-ROM drives? Try clicking Start, then Run, then type devmgmt.msc to load the Device Manager. Then click the "+" icon next to the DVD or CD-ROM drives to see if they're listed.

Sounds like it might be motherboard driver problem (since they usually include IDE drivers that the hard drives and CD-ROM drives rely on). If you can find out what kind of motherboard you have, it's worth a shot to install the motherboard drivers for your specific motherboard type.

You can usually find out based on your PC's model number (if it's a Dell or whatever), or by what it says when you first boot your PC (before Windows starts loading). It should say something about "Via" or "Intel" or "nForce" or something like that, followed by some letters and numbers. You should be able to hit the Pause key so you can jot it down.

 

[Nebraskan4Texas]

Yes, I'm positive they're recognized as CD-ROM drives. Whenever I put a CD in one, it says the drive is not accessible. And yes, I reinstalled the version of Windows that came with my computer. Not XP.

 

[Fan4life]

What version of windows are you running? Is this an oem pc or one you put together? What model of pc or what chipset on the motherboard.

 

[Nebraskan4Texas]

Windows 98 (yes, I'm behind on the times). A Gateway...

 

[Fan4life]

Do you have anything at all listed under other devices? What is listed under IDE/ATA Atapi drivers in the device manager?

 

[highbury]

so much better than outsourced tech support.

 

[Fan4life]

Is it maybe this issue
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