my computer has stopped detecting my pioneer burner and dvd rom drives all it shows in my computer is the two hard drives

i have tried changing them from slave etc and add new hardware and nothing works


anyideas?


its an emachine

they are getting power and all cables are well plugged in

one of my hard drives disappeared once after a crash, did everything i could, then one day switched on and there they were

Are they showing up in Disk Management in Administrative Tools?

From Control Panel (classic view) double-click Administrative Tools, then go to Computer Management.

Click Disk Management on the left column, maximise the window, & you should be able to see any optical drives at the bottom on the right-hand side.

Note: they won't show up on the TOP on the right-hand side unless, I think, you have a disc in it/them.

If they're not there & you're OK setting the time etc etc in BIOS afterwards, try the clear CMOS jumper on the motherboard. I've had drives disappear before which re-appeared when I did that...

could do with some advice as i cant install my internet software

power the machine off and back on then get into the BIOS and look for the drive on the drive list

if the drive is not present in the bios then there is a fault, check the cabling and power for the device but if you can't get it to appear in BIOS then the drive needs replacing

if the drive is present in BIOS, but isn't present in windows then there's a registry problem, have a look at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314060 if that doesn't work you can try using system restore to roll back the registry to a date that you remember the drive being present or you can recover your system from a backup made prior to it's disappearance, in the worst case where you can't get it back then reinstall windows - you may manage to recover it with a system repair from the installation disk so try that first if you go this route

that doesnt seem to work? ive tried what you said

does the drive appear in the bios list ?

is that in the menu you can fetch up with pressing delete?
if so no.

yes, when you power the machine on pressing delete will get you into the BIOS screen on some machines it's F2 or F10

one of those screens in the bios will show a list of all the drives attached to the machine, usually it's the first screen you see

if the drive isn't on that list and the cabling is ok then you need a new drive as the one you have is bust

you should be able to find a replacement for around £15 to £18

sorry I can't be more help

Try the clear CMOS jumper on the motherboard like I suggested earlier...

If you're not sure about doing it or setting the time etc back up in the BIOS afterwards drag/press gang/call in a friendly neighbourhood geek if you have one to hand. Not the kind of thing I'd like to describe over the internet.

cheers pal thats good advice

Long shot as you don't mention what (if any) error messages you get but try this link:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314060

It involves a couple of changes to your registry but worked for me when I 'lost' my CD/DVD drives.

Long shot as you don't mention what (if any) error messages you get but try this link:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314060

It involves a couple of changes to your registry but worked for me when I 'lost' my CD/DVD drives.

That link rings some bells for me... This PC had Pinnacle pre-installed and when I decided to uninstall it, I lost access to my CD drives. Reinstalled it, and they were back... I never took the time to sort this out, just left Pinnacle there, but it's extremely annoying. I don't want it... it's useless... and it's taking up 824MB...

My disc drives vanished when i installed DiVX player.
One of the extas that came with it made them invisible.
uninstalled the extra's and it solved the problem.
If you've installed any programs around the same time your drive vanished, try uninstalling and see if that makes a difference....or there's always system restore