Adding CD-ROM drive

[JayE]

Hi,

I've just added a CD-ROM drive to a PC which didn't have one before.

The POST shows that it has found the CD-ROM, but it seems that no drive letter has been assigned to it.

How do I do this? I thought it was automatic.

Regards,
Jay/UK

 

[smah]

What's the operating system? Does it show up in Device Manager?

 

[cbestengineer]

A PC you didn't have or a CD-ROM you didn't have?

Sounds like a CMOS setting.

Craig Keep Learning!

 

[ANFPS26]

I just had this problem on one. Do you have Win98? This problem was that in config.sys the entry "LASTDRIVE=Z" was set to "LASTDRIVE=E", so the CR-ROM should be F since there were 3 hard drives already. This entry was keeping it from assigning a drive. I changed it to "LASTDRIVE=Z" and it fixed it. It can be any letter as long it is greater or equal to the number of drives you have.
Do a Start,Run,Sysedit to get to the config.sys file. Jim

Please come back and let us know if your
problem is fixed and what fixed it!!

 

[hksoftware]

I had a similar prroblem, the CD-rom showed up on the POST, but in windows/dos the drive was not there.

It turned out that the motherboard was picky,
and would only work with the 'Cable Select' jumper set
on the CD-ROM.

It's worth checking this and different slave/master and IDE cable configurations

 

[ceh4702]

Go to add hardware, in the control panel, and add the cdrom to the hardware and install the driver. You may need to get the device driver yourself from the manufacturers website. Usually the device drivers from Mitsumi will work with most hard drives temporarily.

With CD/R or CD/rw or DVD or combination CDROM Drives, you probably need the correct Drivers and software to make it function properly. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[Jontmke]

The "lastdrive=z" post could be it, but most home pc's don't have any line like that. Usually this is caused by Device Manager not properly recognising your motherboards chipset. Go in to the "system devices" and make sure the chipset is properly identified. It should say "Intel 80815" etc. or whoever made it. If it does not have a manufacturers name in there, find out which chipset you have and go to there website and download the latest chipset drivers. Via calls them the 4in1 drivers. Intel has there own program too. Another way to check is to see if device manager lists your HD's with the actual name instead of a generic name. This would be the same problem. Do not try installing cd-rom drivers they are for DOS, not Windows.

 

[ANFPS26]

That entry can sometimes be added by a DOS CD-ROM driver. Lite-On added it to my config.sys file. It can be used with win 3.1 and wfw311 to gain upper memory space. The fewer drives specified, the less upper memory it uses which frees up conventional memory. I assumed JayE was using an older OS--maybe not. He hasn't come back to answer any of these suggestions. This whole thread is probably moot, anyway. Jim

Please come back and let us know if your
problem is fixed and what fixed it!!

 

[cbestengineer]

I want to change my vote...I think the Last drive=Z is a good place to start Keep Learning!

 

[JayE]

Hi everyone,

It turns out that the problem was simple human error (mine!!).

I didn't realise that I had to load a DOS device driver from the disk which came with the drive (I'd forgotten all about it). Now I've done this, the drive has been assigned a drive letter of D.

If I hadn't realised myself, I see that Jim hit the nail on the head and would have answered my question - thank you very much.

Sorry to bother you all.

Regards,
Jay/UK

 

[ANFPS26]

Glad you found your problem. Jim

Please come back and let us know if your
problem is fixed and what fixed it!!