Okay, here's the deal... my CD/DVD drive no longer shows up. However, my external harddrive shows up as drives (F: )(D: ). ???? Was working fine up until today, or rather I hadn't needed my CD drive until today and that's when I noticed it. My CD still powers up, put in a disc and it spins up. However that's it. I'm running a Dell Inspiron 1200 with XP, all updates current. Can any body help? Had a similiar issue last year, without the external HD issue and can't remember where I found the fix. Had to do with going in and editing the registry.
Have you tried to boot from the CD/DVD drive? One of the main causes, from my experience, for an optical drive not shown up is that for whatever reason the jumper cables have work themselves loose. If you're able to you could crack the case open and have a peek.
Step 1: Locate the part number on your external drive. Use the internet to locate new drivers for the drives. Install those drivers and retest. Step 2: Locate the part number for your computer (assuming you've already found that), go to dell.com and download an updated driver suite for you puter. Install those drivers and retest. Step 3: Get another USB device. A thumb drive, or something else that you can test on another computer and ensure that it works. Try that on you computer. If that doesn't work, there is probably something wrong with your USB circuit. If your computer is a laptop, you've probably got an SMT USB connector on it. The solder joints on those connectors can wear out after repeated insertions and extractions of the cable.
Oh, and I'm not sure how USB devices work with regards to power. I'm not sure if the USB controller negotiates with the device before providing power to the the device. It may be that it just keeps voltage to the power pin constantly.
I've unplugged the external HD (which is a USB powered one by the way) and still have no CD drive. I've taken it out and tried to turn on the computer, hoping that when reinstalled it will 'find new hardware' however, the computer will not boot up without the CD drive in the dock. As for booting from it, no dice. It doesn't find the drive. I've updated all the drivers, it was the second thing I did. Still, showing 2 drive numbers for the external and no CD. I'll go to the Ext HD manufacturer site and see what I can find. Thanks for the help so far.
My Computer > Tools > Map Network Drive Have a look at the two drop down lists and see if they give you the option to map your drive to a drive letter, it's worked for me before.
If your motherboard doesn't see the drive while trying to boot from it, and you've double checked all the connections, then your drive is bad.
Well, I turned off the comp. Disconnected the power, the external and the battery. Removed the CD drive. Reconnected the Cd drive, the battery, the power and turned it on. I now have a CD drive. I have not reinstalled the ext HD and won't until I finish doing what I need to with the CD drive. I'll keep this updated as to how that turns out.
Okay, so I've reinstalled my ext HD and promptly had my laptop locked up. When I get it rebooted, no CD drive and the ext has 2 drive letters, one of which is already assigned to my iPod.
Try this: Right-click on My Computer and click Manage, then select Disk Management on the left. Is your CD drive listed in there? If so right-click on it and click Change Drive Letter..., if it doesn't have a letter assigned to it, click Add and select an unused one. A screenshot of the Disk Management window would help us out. Simon
Tried that. Shows my ext HD with 2 drive letters, until I go to change the drive letter, then it only shows it with one. Changed it anyway to an unused drive letter. Still no CD drive, will try and reboot and see if it comes back once I finish with all this.
