Hi everyone, sorry in advance for this long post and for being so technologically unsavvy, but I think I am having problems with corrupted files and/or drivers causing my generic CD-ROM and Artec CD-RW drives not to be recognized. I am running Win98SE, on a clone system (which I will call computer X) and the two drives were working fine together until today. I believe I had them set up with the CD-RW as secondary master and the CD-ROM as secondary slave, but I am not positive about this. When the trouble began, I was in the process of trying to ready another PC (computer Y) for the internet, so I had "borrowed" my CD-ROM from X, leaving only the CD-RW. The CD-RW was working fine by itself at about noon, but around 12:30 I downloaded some DSL software to X's desktop and tried to burn it onto a CD, at which point I got an error message in NERO that a necessary Windows file was missing. I fiddled around with it for a while with no luck, then decided to pull and reinstall the Nero software, hoping that it might contain bundled drivers for the CD-RW. This actually seemed to make things worse, because when I put the NERO CD in to reinstall, the system couldn't find the drive at all. I then tried booting with a recent windows98 recovery diskette, which has upgraded CD-drivers included, thinking I could restore the file to Windows, and the system wouldn't recognize a drive as being present. (Remember that old saying, "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing?). I tried several different scans of my system, and none of them detected a drive either, not even the add new hardware program. Finally, I tried moving the CD-ROM back from Y to X, so that the original configuration was restored, and even tried swapping the CD-ROM with the CD-RW, all to no avail. I am sure for someone who knew what they were doing, restoring these drivers would be a piece of cake, but I am just too clueless, even after reading hours of posts, to figure out what to do. I can't restore the drivers from a Win98SE cd, because the system won't recognize either drive now, and I don't know the right commands to do it in DOS from my recovery diskette, if the drivers are even on there. I did try a SYS C: command, but that didn't help. I am praying this is something really simple and obvious that one of you Mages can help me with, because I would hate to have to call the Microsoft people and tell them my PC's "cupholder" is broken....Thanks so much in advance,
Jayne

First, can you boot into Windows still?

Next, reboot, stop by the BIOS setup and make sure that the drives are set to autodetect. Then boot into Safe Mode, after that, enter Device Manager and remove all instances of the CD drives found.

Then reboot into normal mode.

If the drive is not found then you may be having problems with the ASPI layer...download and run ASPICheck, from here (http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/support/driverdetail.html?filekey=aspichk.exe)

Does bios recognize the drives? Do the CD-ROM drive lights come on during boot? If the drive is not recognized, then the drivers will not be installed by Windows. This could account for the missing files reported by Nero.

Check all of the connections to the drive - power, IDE cable. Reseat the IDE cable into the motherboard and drive to make sure the connection is good. Try a new cable. Try a different IDE power connector.

Hi again, and thanks for the suggestions. I only have the CD-RW drive installed at present, however neither drive shows up in the BIOS or any device manager, system scan, etc. I double-checked the BIOS, and they are definitely set to autodetect. The burner does not power up during boot, and it is not a power problem, because it runs fine (albeit undetected) when I press play. All the connections are tight on the hardware, and I updated the ASPI drivers to the latest version, but that did not restore recognition either. Icons for both drives are still on the desktop, and when I click them, E (the CD-ROM) says "E is not accessible - this folder has been moved or removed", while D, the CD-RW, says "Problem with shortcut...the drive or network connection that the shortcut refers to is unavailable." These messages remain the same regardless of which drive is connected to which cable. The only other thing I could think of to do was run the System File Checker tool, which returned two potentially corrupt files. I think they are Windows system files, but the tool couldn't repair or replace them without access to the Windows 98 CD, and I don't know where to find them, or what they do. One was user.exe and the other was setupx.dll. If anyone has a suggestion about what to do next, I would welcome it, as I really don't have much of a plan from here. Thanks again,
Jayne

Theeinferno
Welcome to the forums.

Please don't take offence but could you try and split your text into paragraphs. Stupid folks like me have a lot difficulty in reading unbroken text like you have in your post.;)

Do the CD ROM drives work in your other computer?

Check the CD rom for bent pins. Did you try switching the IDE cable?

SetupX dll is nothing to worry about, it changes with almost everything you install.

The user.exe is a little more worrysome, that changing can be indicative of a viral infection.

IF both drives are not detect by the BIOS, even though it is set to autodetect, I would try a new cable first. Then try one or both in a different computer.

Thank you for all the help on this - it turned out I had developed simultaneous hardware and software problems, a situation that was totally throwing me. The new cable helped get my drives recognized, and from there I was able to fix the other problems. This is a great forum, even for novices like myself, and I really appreciate all the advice. Thanks again and best wishes to all,
Jayne