i brought a dvdrw the NEC DVD-RW ND-4550 and i installed it put the ribbon and power cables in but when i log on and go into My Computer i dont see my dvdrw drive or my cdrw drive that used to show, ive tryed trouble shooter and updating the driver but still it doesnt show, does anyone know how to fix it, if this helps im running Windows Xp Professional SP2 if u need more information to resolve the problem please pm me.
Thanks, BP

Registry fix HERE And welcome to Techspot.

thanks for the welcome Peddant, and that solution you gave me didnt work. i think it might have something to do with the start up like the Primary Master, Primary Slave, Secondary master, secondary slave drives because it takes longer to get past that screen

Oh well that fix works for half the problems with missing drives.Your obviously in the wrong half

The other standard "solution" is to make sure the jumpers are set correctly.
Either as master or slave on the second IDE depending on if you have another drive attached to it,and how that`s configured.

i dont know how to set jumpers. When i first got my PC it had a CD-RW drive with it , now i got this DVD-RW none of the drives show up and it takes a really long time booting up on the first screen.i know that my CD-RW and DVD-RW are set as master drives because i read something on the internet telling me how to tell if they are master or slave. so do you know how to set the jumpers peddant?

You should set the new DVD as master on the second IDE cable with the old CD as slave.Look HERE
That gives you pictures,and mentions the cable select option as well.

when i brought mine he just gave me the disk drive on its own that was it. so i think ive been scammed cuz im a nooby at this hardware stuff, but anyway i find the screws off my old computer so thats ok and i can get some jumpers like the blue on in the pic but black, do i need the cables?

omg Peddant you are the best thanks so much!! i didnt really need cables i needed screws but i had them anyway all it was was that jumper over the master it needed swaping to the slave and now it works thanks so much!!!