Okay, I hope I explain this well. I recently switched out the CD-RW on my old Gateway computer. Now, the computer isn't recognizing the CD- RW or the regular CD-Rom. As far as Windows is concerned, the E & F drives don't exist. Now I'm very stupid when it comes to this stuff, so I need all the help I can. I've scoured different help sites and tried a few things suggested, but nothing so far. My CD-Rom is set as the master, and the RW is set as the slave. They're IDE drives(as far as I know), and run off the same 'ribbon'. All I want to do is re-install Windows on the computer, but I can't even do that because I can't use a cd. Any help or tips where I might find some help are greatly appreciated.

richrock

Recheck the jumpers and connection on each drive to make sure they're correct.

Remove the CD drives from Device Manager and reboot to let Windows reinstall the drives with correct drivers.

Also check the IDE cable connection to the motherboard, as you may have loosened it. Then run BIOS setup and see if they're recognized by the BIOS. If not select the auto-detect option. Is the drive recognized if you boot to DOS from a boot floppy? If still no luck, remove the new CD-RW and see if the CD-ROM is recognized again (I'm assuming the CD-ROM is setup just as it was before installing the CD-RW).

What a tough act to follow! But If what these guys say don't work, try putting your cdrom on your HD IDE cable. That is where I have mine, because I ran out of space. Sounds like your CDRW is the problem!. Yea get it working and install windows and then play with the CDRW hardware later. Remove your CDRW until you are ready to rock.:D

PS/some drives are very picky on the type of IDE port they will work on. One guy had to buy a IDE card to get his CDRW to work.
Wish we had the SPACEMONKEY POST to insert here!!!!:)

SPACEMONKEY TREAD

I found this in the archives for you.





http://www.cdrom-guide.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21456