[CATZ]

I was stupid enough enough to try install adeptec software for my cdrw drive. Its an older drive I used in the times of win98. Anyways - then the thing wouldn't worked so I uninstalled it ... what a mistake because the drive 'disappeared'. Also the other drive dispappered a few hours later (or maybe at the time but I hadn't noticed) and its a dvdrw drive. I have nero and power dvd software installed prior to the disapearance and both were working fine - and now neither is picking the drives up.

My problem is - I would have done a restore on my win xp but I cant put a disc in to do it.

I tried to download drivers from a few different places but no one seems to have a definitive answer to what drivers to use - and any I have used say they have bits of dlls and things missing. I wish I had a way of fixing this problem - maybe someone would have a specific driver I could use and even get one of the drives going for now so I can do an xp repair.

I even tried copying drivers from anopther cmputer and sending by email - but it didnt work.

BTW the two drives are a phillipsrw400

and the other is Just Link DVD rW

THANKS EVER SO MUCH IN ADVANCE.

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Third-party driver installs shouldn't be necessary for any optical drive these days -- that necessity became obsolete along with the DOS-based versions of Windows. Now they all use XP's built-in drivers. If the drives are listed in Device Manager, right-click each in turn and select 'Uninstall', then reboot -- hopefully Windows will then detect and set them up again just as when they were first installed.

[pip22]

Third-party driver installs shouldn't be necessary for any optical drive these days -- that necessity became obsolete along with the DOS-based versions of Windows. Now they all use XP's built-in drivers. If the drives are listed in Device Manager, right-click each in turn and select 'Uninstall', then reboot -- hopefully Windows will then detect and set them up again just as when they were first installed.

[CATZ]

there lies a prolem ... I did that and although the drive shows in the dievice manager after rebooting its even got the exclamation mark so it knows its there. I even checked the flat ide cables for the drive - unplugged them re booted then plugged them in again and re booted in the bid to make it think there was a new drive ...it is still not recognising.
It seems the xp pre loaded driver is gone, I probably screwed up when I was taking off the adaptec software. I have also tried the 'update driver automatically'. it doesnt work.

I am not a happy bunny.

thanks for your help.
Amanda

[dsenette]

unplugged them re booted then plugged them in again and re booted in the bid to make it think there was a new drive

almost.....right click on "my computer" and choose manage, then choose device manager. find the offending drive and right click it then choose uninstall...NOW turn off the computer, remove the drive, start the compouter, shut it down, put the drive back in, and start back up....any change?

[Ztruker]

If all else fails, try a System Restore to before you did this, it may get you working again.

Start / Programs / Accessories / System Tools / System Restore

[CATZ]

brilliant - I shall get back to you once I have tried these both. THANKYOU SO MUCH.

[CATZ]

hey - thanks for your suggestions. Did both - no luck. System restore did work BUT the drive problem has been for a couple weeks and restore did not take me back far enough. It is great to rememeber in future.

A friend loaned me an omega zip drive and my windows wont pick it up - I was hoping to use it and do a 'restore or repair' with my windows disc. So I went looking for a driver to go with the iomega zip cd 650 drive and I cant find one ....says windows XP supports this drive dont need driver..... frustration strikes here.

DOH so it looks like my driver files are banjaxed in windows xp - I dont know what else I can do
I wonder if there is some way to get a driver files set download and let windows recognise at least one of my cd drives ....... I am so upset, no 1 son got computer games for christmas and he cant play them.

thanks so much for your help with this frustrating problem.

[Ztruker]

In your first post, you said My problem is - I would have done a restore on my win xp but I cant put a disc in to do it. .

I think this will work as it does not depend on XP at all but is strictly a function of the BIOS. So, put your XP CD in the drive,go into BIOS Setup, set your CD drive as the first boot device, save changes and reboot. You should see a message that says "Press any key to boot from CD". When you do press any key (Enter is good).

That should get your recovery running.

[CATZ]

BRILLIANT - I shall try it ..... and of course will let you know how it goes. I have never got such a problem like this before LOL ... and never again will I install additional cd burning software just to try it out ..... though I think it was the uninstall that did the damage for some reason.

THANKYOU

[CATZ]

Okay I am having a major tantrum and you are getting very frustrated with me .... I promise I wont bug you much longer.

Okay I did the bios thing, then I re boot, got into the blue screen to aske me if I want to repair/restore windows ..... then all of a sudden I felt like I was getting somewhere.

BUT NOW It is asking for administrator password DOH and I am entering it - I even made a new adminstrator password and it wont let me do.

SO I went out and bought a new hard drive enclosure - ready to transfer all my stuff so I can just reformat the darn thing and it wont recognise it either ... I cant get the driver as WINDOWS XP supports these drives DOH and here we are again at square one.



Who would think such a simple thing as to getting some new drivers would prove to be so complicated.

thanks so much for being incredably patient.

BY the way ........ I do make Graphics and things - in return I would be so happy to make you something for your website, or an avatar or signature!!!!

[Ztruker]

No problem, we're making progress

When it asks for the Administrator password, just press the Enter key without entering anything, see if that gets you in.

You said:

SO I went out and bought a new hard drive enclosure - ready to transfer all my stuff so I can just reformat the darn thing and it wont recognise it either

By hard drive enclosure, do you mean an external USB hard drive? If so, it requires USB 2.0, do you have that or does your computer have USB 1.1? The only way I know to tell if the computer has USB 2.0 or USB 1.1 is as follows:

1. Right-click the My Computer icon and select Properties
2. Click Hardware Tab
3. Click Device manager button
4. Left-click the plus (+) sign next to Universal Serial Bus Controllers.

If Enhanced Host Controller and/or USB 2.0 Root Hub Device are listed, then the computer has USB 2.0 ports.

If Universal Host Controller and/or Open Host Controller are listed, then the computer has USB 1.1 ports

Your best bet at this point may be to do a Repair Install. It will leave your data intact (and most of your programs as well).

How to do a Repair Install

[CATZ]

okay here is what happened ...

when I eventully got in to do a repair ..... it started to do its stuff and this dll was missing and that dll was missing ..so I went through with it all anyway but at the end it wouldn't boot back into windows. so I took the drive out and plugged it in to another computer to see if I could rescue any files and it said it was corrupt. After some thought about what was on that drive I decided to just to the last resort ...

a format! Well its doing right now as I type and windows xp is re installing ... I got a jellybean key changer thing so I hope my key code will work as this is not the original OS on this computer.

I am so thankful that I backed up all my files onto discs a few weeks ago so I have only really lost one batch of photos and most of my stuff is also on the laptop ..... my son however lost all his games, so it looks like he needs to go back to the start of B&W and so on ... I haven't brokn the news to him yet but I know he will be so happy about the computer being up and running again he wont mind too much.

As for my hardrive in the enclosure .... well ~I have it now and I will be backing up regularly with it. It will work as its the same as my old one which DH uses for work now.

thanks for all your help Rich


AMANDA

[CATZ]

I spoke to soon - just turned round and its looking for DLLs which apparantly cant be found on the disc. I dont understand why.

[Ztruker]

Two probabilities. The CD is defective or the CD-ROM drive is defective.

Have you tried cleaning the CD disc if it's scratched or smudged. How to clean a CD or DVD Disc

[CATZ]

hey Rich

well ... we got there (sort of) looks like the cd was scratched, there are 3 marks on the back of it and we tried cleaning it and re installing but it wouldn't work even after that.... as it ran through it said DLLS were missing even after a full format of the hard drive, we did try to 'skip' the DLLS but it just wouldn't work.


What I did in the end ....... installed windows ME and my 11year old is over the moon! Got all the drivers on and the graphics card going too so it all looks great.

what I will do through time is buy an upgrade disc for either xp or vista for that computer as it is worth keeping - its 1gb ram, and 3ghz processor and fancy graphics card on it (cant remember what) OR I will see if my own lap top vista basic disc will work on it ... but for now it is running like a dream so I will leave it for a while and see how he gets on with Winows me.

One happy customer here - THANKYOU!