CD rom drive "not Present" on XP reinstall

[ihavlrnd]

I am trying to reload XP on a dell dimensions 8400 and when I go to the bios to change the boot sequence to the cd rom drive, it is "not present"

how do I change the bios to have it read the cd rom drive?

 

[ihavlrnd]

CD rom not present on XP reinstall

it says the hard drive is available in front of the cd and dvd drives.

the A drive and USB are available when I go to the bios. The 2 disc drives both have the "not present" message after the hard drive in the boot sequence screens

can I load the recovery disc to usb?

can I swap the hard drive to another computer? I also have a dell dimensions
xpst700r

 

[raybay]

Usually the problem is that the drive has worn out... or the ribbon cable has become brittle and cracked, so it is no longer detected.

How are you installing your software? with a not present optical drive?

 

[ihavlrnd]

cd rom "not present" on xp reinstall

not sure about the digital question...I have other ribbon cables that I can swap or I have another machine, a dell dimension xpsT700r

the problem seems to be when it boots, the f9. f12. f2 or f 8 key needs to be intiated to have the bios read the cd rom...even on my other machine, I can not get the CD rom drive to execute on boot

In speaking to windows, they indicated the manufacturer needed to be contacted for the boot sequence instructions but the service tag on the machine is older, like the machine, and dell will not assist

 

[raybay]

Dell will not assist for free. Right?
But the instructions for all the drivers for that model are available from Dell. The drivers are available from Dell.
Is this a SATA drive? This is Windows XP! Right?

 

[ihavlrnd]

yes, yes and yes

they will not assist without enterng a service agreement with them.

is there some sort of driver missing that I can dwnload from another machine?

 

[ihavlrnd]

CD rom not present on XP reinstall

if I pull the hard drive out, can I reload xp on another machine?

 

[raybay]

Yes. If it is an OEM version, you will need to re-register it, but if you do it by telephone, there should be no problem whatsoever... You just tell them what happened, or tell them you are moving that Windows XP version to another hard drive that is better, faster, whatever, or that the old one died... You won't need to uninstall the old drive, but it will only work on that computer... and if you move the drive to another machine, you will likely have to re-register it, and that is when they will refuse.