Cdrom Drive

[riversdale]

My CDROM Drive has disappeared, so that I cannot put any cd in. How do I get it back, please?

Thanks.

[PeOfEo]

Check your bios to make sure it is turned on, open your case to make sure it is plugged in, if all else fails you could always go office space on it.

[Aronya1]

See if your BIOS recognizes it.
See if you can access it in DOS.
If yes, on both counts, the drive is good.
Boot to Safe Mode, go to Device Mgr. & remove any references to CD drive or controller.
Reboot normally.

[riversdale]

I am not a computer expert. I do not know how to check that the BIOS iS turned on or not.
Will be grateful for instructions on how to do this.

Thanks.

[PeOfEo]

when you turn on your comp it should say something like f2 for setup f12 for boot menu. Hit that f2. It might be different on other comps but go to setup. It will take you to a screen that says bios that has your ram processor and all of your drive data as well as a bunch of mother board settings etc.

[Aronya1]

You don't "turn on your BIOS." It is a set of instructions pre-programmed into your computer that are the first instructions run when you apply power.

As PeOfEo said, look for a prompt when you turn your computer on that says to press F1 or F2 or Del or Esc, etc. You may have to experiment to find out what works if your system displays a company graphic when it starts, and you can't see the prompt.

Once you get into the BIOS, or setup program, check to see what hard drives it sees. You should see a reference to your hard drive, and one for your CD. The hard drive should be listed as the Primary Master drive. The CD may be listed as either a Master (Secondary) or a slave. If you can't tell the difference, or this info is too confusing, it's probably time to see a professional tech support person.

DO NOT EXPERIMENT WITH THE SETTINGS IN YOUR BIOS IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING!

If the drive is recognized in BIOS, test it in DOS. Read from & write to it. If this works, the drive is good. Windows is your problem.

[Dark Dragon]

If you are running Windows then might I suggest doing a Standard Scandisk with the box "Automatically Fix Errors" checked..then run the Disk Defraggmenter THEN go to System Information from the menu and do a File System File Checker..(make sure you have your Windows disk handy in case it is needed)..

This may help too...maybe.

[PeOfEo]

Scan Disk is for windows 98 not me xp or 2000. If you are running those you would use chkdsk. But this doesn't have anything to do with an optical drive so why would you use it? Also why would you use a defragmenter?