Missing CD & CD-RW drives

[Archimedes]

For a few months I have been trying to get my system to recognize the CD & CD-RW drives that have been on it for years. Bios does not recognize them either, not obviously Device Manager. I am running XP-home on a Gateway G6. I went inside the case and checked the cables attached to the drives and all was OK and even tried disconnecting and reconnecting them. System restore function does not go back far enough. Any suggestions?

 

[CCT]

Do what it says here: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/314060

 

[Archimedes]

Tried but didn't work

I had tried that previously without success. Tried it again for the fun of it but still no dice.

Any other ideas to try?

 

[Whiffen]

Try switching the jumper settings on the back of the two drives. You need to have an IDE Master (Usually would be your hard drive if your hard drive uses an IDE cable) and the others must be set as slaves. Fool around with the jumpers for awhile and boot into you BIOS to see if any of them show up. If not they might have depleted and need to be replaced. Watch out for static, jolts, always keep it grounded and be sure to turn the power off as you do this! Try them one at a time as well, in case only one is a dud.