My cd rom drive

i have just clean installed windows 98 on an old computer.This worked fine.However when on the actual system on my computer when i click the d:\ drive it says disk not accessable ,the device is not ready.I have read many other posts of people with the same problem.They were told to get a new cd rom as it was broken.This cannot be the case for my cd rom.It works as it has just installed windows 98....
How can i fix it....
All help appreaciated...

James

 

try it with a non CDr, like the Win98 CD
also try another pre recorded CD (like from a magazine)

does it work ?

 

Hi,
i have done and no it doesnt work.But its only when it is on the actual main screen with start and my computer that it doesnt work.When i turn on the computer if there is a cd inside then it recognises it .it can obviously read as it installed windows 98.
all help appreciated ...

 

I maybe also add, that when it was installing hardware it couldnt.This is because it asked for the disk for hardware such as pci stuff etc, and when i put the disk in it didnt work because it was on the main screen and would not read.

 

Does the cd device appear in device manager normally? Any yellow "!" showing up?

 

Yep it shows up fine and when i click on properties it says it is working properly.

 

i do have the option of removing the ide cable and using a "usb to ide" however as it is windows 98 a driver disk would need to be installed for it to fully function as a cd rom.but i cant do that as i would be installing a disk using a cd rom to make that cd rom work.so the disk cannot be installed for me to do that.Unless i could install it on my laptop and transfer it using usb but i dont know how to do that.


All help appreciated ..thanks..

 

have you correctly set the master, slave or C/SEL (presumably its IDE) on all your IDE devices

 

hi,
Yes it is ide,but i do not know how to do what you said....Please could you explain how you do it... thanks

 

right, there will be 2 IDE channels:

• Primery (IDE 0)
• Secondary (IDE 1)

on each channel you can only connect 2 IDE devices (usually HDD or CD / DVD drives)

on each channel there can only be a Master or a Slave (acheving 4 devices)

Primery channel

• 1 master (dev0)
• 1 slave (dev1)

Secondary channel

• 1 master, dev 2
• 1 slave, dev 3

P.S. a master or slave device can exist alone on an IDE cable, but its good practice to only connect a master to the end of the IDE cable and only connect a slave to the middle IDE connector, but your IDE master may need the jumper moving when you connect a slave (force dev 1 present)

and then theres C/SEL (cable select) this basically means the device on the end of the IDE cable is the master, and the device connected to the middle of the IDE cable

these jumper settings are usually next to the connectors on the device

 

hi,
thanks i see what you are saying but i use 2 seperate ide cables for the harddrive and cd rom.i have read somewhere that it may be that i need to select the atapi driver however i do not have this option on the screen...

 

A small breakthrough i can get it to read the win 98 cd if it tries hard.. so it can read...

 

However when i click the d:\ drive it still says

D:\ is not accessable.
Device is not ready.

 

if both IDE devices on separate IDE cables set both devices as master

and scan for spyware and viruses

 

sorry,
how do i set them both as master,it is just an ide cable with no slave bit inbetween.Does this mean it is already master

 

if the drives are set to C/SEL then yes
check the settings of each device, you alter the settings by moving small jumpers (usually next to the connector) and shorting small pin out, like the pics, there will be a label or some thing on the HDD giving details of how to set your particular drive to master or slave (but look carefully at the lable, cos it will probably show part of the IDE connector, to ensure that you are looking at the jumpers correctly) then just move the jumper (s) accordingly

 

hi,
i used a usb to ide cable to hook up the hard drive to my laptop.once connected i uploaded the win me cd onto the harddrive.I then installed me from there.Now it does not say the message.d:\ is not accessible,device is not ready.Whenever i insert a cd it spins and now says insert disk in drive d:However i no it can read as it has done before.It may need a good clean.

 

worth a try!
basically if you want to clean it thourghley with some Isopropel Alcohol, available from your local chemist, you may be asked to sign the poisons book, just tell them why you want it

 

right then, every IDE device can be set to:

• Master
• Slave
• C/SEL (Cable select (if you move the little jumper to C/SEL then where you connect the device on the IDE cable decides weather the device is master or slave))

so your mobo probably has 2 IDE channels (primary & secondary) with each channel is capable of connecting 2 IDE devices to it (master & slave)

so you can have 4 IDE devices at any 1 time

• Primary Master
• Primary Slave
• Secondary Master
• Secondary Slave

C/SEL (cable select) is just another way of connecting IDE devices

• Master = end of cable
• Slave = middle of cable

 

Have you tried one of those disks which cleans the laser? If it worked in the past it cant be anything to serious.