[RichardB1]

Hi folks, just found this site and hope someone can help out. I noticed recently that my CD + DVD drives have disappeared from Explorer. In Device Manager though, one of the drives is showing ok and is working properly (according to Device Manager).

I'm a bit mystified. I think it could be down to Daemon Tools, which I installed recently to allow me to mount virtual drives on my PC. I've uninstalled it but the problem persists unfortunately - not sure if that software has nabbed the drive letters from the CD/DVD or something??

Can anyone suggest anything which might help?

Thanks
Richard

[Advertisements]

Try CD Gone Patch here:

http://www.geekstogo...action=cat&id=1

[Retired Tech]

Try CD Gone Patch here:

http://www.geekstogo...action=cat&id=1

[RichardB1]

Thanks Keith - I've given that a try, but unfortunately no luck, they're still both missing from explorer. Any other thoughts of what I could do?

thanks again
Richard

[Retired Tech]

Go to device manager, click + next to a CD ROM drive, click it, right click, click uninstall, confirm, reboot

[RichardB1]

Sorry for the delay - been away for a few days. I've tried as you suggested but still no luck unfortunately. After doing so (for the one drive that device manager shows) when I restarted it just found the drive again but its still not in explorer. There was no 'found new hardware' window up or anything.

Would there be any BIOS stuff I could check?

[Retired Tech]

Download Everest Home Edition

Run the programme, click + next to computer then summary

Look on right for storage to find the drive make and model

Look at the manufacturer’s site for firmware updates for the drive / Operating System

If you are unable to find it, please post the make and model here before you download anything

Please set a system restore point before you install anything

[RichardB1]

Sorry Keith, I think I've given you duff info. I checked with Everest and the drive I thought was showing up in Device Manager is in fact a virtual drive that was added by Alcohol (I installed it ages ago and haven't had any problems with it at all). It would therefore appear that Windows knows nothing about either device unfortunately.

I can't tell the exact model of both items - the DVD writer is a Pioneer 108 (according to sticker on the side of it) and I can see firmware upgrades for it on their website (Pioneer UK.

The CD writer is an LG, but I can't find any more info on it. Its just a standard 52 speed model, nothing more to it. Not sure if there's anything I can do to get the specific model though - happy to take it out the box if you think its worth it (presumably a label on the top of it or something?).

Thanks again
Richard

[Retired Tech]

Try the firmware update for the Pioneer, at least it will determine if it is the cause

If the firmware solves the Pioneer, we can try to find out about the LG

[RichardB1]

No luck unfortunately - when I run the update I just get a popup message saying "Available target is not found" - the same message also appears on the DOS window launched by the exe.

I'll see if I can find any info on it, but any other ideas would be much appreciated.

Thanks again
Richard

[RichardB1]

Not sure if it helps or not, but MSCDEX.exe doesn't appear to be anywhere despite being mentioned in autoexec.bat...

[RichardB1]

Not sure if it helps or not, but MSCDEX.exe doesn't appear to be anywhere despite being mentioned in autoexec.bat...

[Retired Tech]

There is a connection, the 2nd part may help you see what is missing

ABOUT MSCDEX

Mscdex is a CD-ROM "redirector" that enables CD-ROM access from the MS-DOS.

SYNTAX

Syntax: MSCDEX.EXE /D:x /M:n /E /V /L:x /S /K

/D:Device name Allows you to specify the name for the driver. This must be identical to the device name in the Config.sys file. Usually MSCD0001 is commonly used.
/M:<n> Specifies the number of sector buffers to cache the path table of a CD-ROM disk. Typically, each drive should have four to five buffers. The larger this number is, the less your computer will read directly from the CD-ROM drive.
/E Tells MSCDEX.exe to use expanded memory.
/V Displays information on memory usage when you boot your PC.
/L:<drive letter> Specifies the letter you wan to assign the first CD-ROM drive. Such as D:
/S Allows the CD-ROM to be shared on MS-NET based systems.
/K (Japanese) Tells MSCDEX.EXE to use any KANJI file structures, if present rather than the default of alphanumeric file structures.

Extra Notes:

Ensure when loading the MSCDEX line in Windows 3.x that you specify the LASTDRIVE= statement, such as LASTDRIVE=Z

EXAMPLES

The following is an example of how the MSCDEX line should look in your autoexec.bat:

LH C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD001

Remember that the above example if used must have the same device driver name as the CD-ROM driver in the config.sys.

Additional information about the autoexec.bat / config.sys can be found on our autoexec.bat / config.sys page.
Additional information about loading MS-DOS CD-ROM drivers can be found on our CD-ROM drivers page.

ERRORS AND ISSUES

When booting receive message MSCDEX is already running and if I continue all programs will stop running.

It is likely that you have more than one MSCDEX statement in your autoexec.bat. Edit the autoexec.bat and place a REM in front of one of the MSCDEX lines in the autoexec.bat. Additional information about editing the autoexec.bat can be found on our autoexec.bat / config.sys page.

Type: External (6.0 and later)

Syntax:

MSCDEX /D:driver [/D:driver2. . .] [/E][/K][/S][/V][/L:letter] [/M:number]

Purpose: Used to gain access to CD-ROM drives.

Discussion

MSCDEX can be loaded from your AUTOEXEC.BAT file or from the command prompt to gain access to CD-ROM drives. The device driver that came with your CD-ROM must be loaded from your CONFIG.SYS file. This command should not be used after Windows has started.

Options

/D:driver1 [/D:driver2 . . .]

/D:driver specifies the driver signature of the first CD-ROM device driver. This parameter must match the /D switch on the CONFIG.SYS command that starts the corresponding CD-ROM device driver. The MSCDEX command must include at least one /D switch.

/E - Specifies that the CD-ROM driver be allowed to use expanded memory, if available, to store sector buffers.

/K - Specifies that DOS should recognize CD-ROM volumes encoded in Kanji. By Default, MS-DOS does not recognize Kanji CD-ROM values.

/S - Enables sharing of CD-ROM drives on MS-NET or Windows for Workgroups servers.

/V - Directs MSCDEX to display memory statistics when it starts.
/L:letter - Specifies the drive letter to assign to the first CD-ROM drive. If you have more than one CD-ROM drive, MS-DOS assigns additional CD-ROM drives subsequent available driver letters.

/M:number Specifies the number of sector buffers.

[RichardB1]

Thanks Keith - still no further forward with it unfortunately. Not sure if W2K uses MSCDEX.exe or if its been replaced by cdrom.sys. Anyway, do you think a reinstall would do it? I've got boot disks made up from my Windows CD and am prepared to reinstall if need be once I've backed up what I need. I just don't want to go through all that and still not have the CD & DVD present...

[Retired Tech]

You can use Driver Verifier by running Verifier.exe and then restarting your computer. You do not need to make any other changes to begin analyzing drivers in the system.

http://support.micro...kb;en-us;244617

[RichardB1]

Thanks Keith - I ran it and both atapi.sys and cdrom.sys were disabled. I enabled them both, rebooted but still nothing. Verifier shows them both now as loaded but there are no drives in explorer or device manager. There are quite a lot of disabled drivers shown in the list - I'm not sure if there are any others that the CD & DVD would be dependant on or not though - do you know if there are any others worth trying? Sorry, would post a list of whats there but I don't seem able to copy and paste from verifier...

thanks
Richard