E:\ Drive Error

I'm not sure how CDroms and the inside of the computer go together, but do they both plug into the same spot on your motherboard? If so maybe your motherboard is shot.(I'm really talking without knowing what I'm talking about, just look where they both are plugged in, maybe that one spot is messed up.)

Well, it is still getting power to them, since they WILL open and close, but they won't read anything. I don't get it either. I've taken my whole damn computer apart and cleaned the shit out of it already. Whatever...

That was a good thought tho. Maybe the IDE cable connecting the drives to the mobo has a broken wire or something. If you have another cable, you should try that. If not, just connect one of the CD drives to the other IDE cable (assuming you only have one hard drive). Be sure to set the jumper on the CD drive to slave if you HD is master already.

You probably just need the XP ATAPI drivers. I cant find the actual file, but to my knowledge XP did release it in a XP Update.
Open up IE, go to Tools, then Windows Update.
All the critical updates are pre-selected so you're okay there, now go to Drivers and download any CD-ROM drivers it has on there. Everything on there is pertaining to your specific pc, so you wont download something that is for something you dont have.

Try booting into safe mode and see if you can access the drives.

(To do this, the usual way is to hit F8 while the comp is booting up until you get the prompt to go into Safe mode)

Hey, maybe the IDE is loose, it may look like its in there, but if its loose at all it won't work right. So you say that it'll open and close, but can't read ANY disc,

You COULD try Uninstalling them and then Rebooting your computer, (windows SHOULD recognize them and install them). But, You shouldn't do this if your gonna have problems getting the appropirate drivers.

Don't mess with the drivers. Take the CD drive out and put it in another known working computer. If it doesn't read CDs in that computer either I think you can blame the CD drive as the problem.


Post again with your findings after doing this.

Well, they wouldn't both stop working at the same time, it's very unlikely.

Thats why I thought that there might have been a loose cable, because there could be a loose connection and neither of them would work if they ran on the same IDE.

No, the connections have been checked and cleaned, and checked and cleaned numerous times... That isn't the case.

Check and cleaned yes, but have you tried a different cable?

Well, I'm not a computer store over here. No, I don't have another cable to mess with. No, I don't have an upgraded version of Roxio to try. No, I don't have Nero or any other burning application. No, I'm not made of money. Yes, I have accepted that I will not be using my CD-ROM until I get a new computer.

You could always just swap the cd-rom ide cable with the hd ide cable. Then, if you hard drives didn't work, (or if you cd drives did) you would know what the problem was.

When my dads comp couldnt detect a drive, i kicked it and it started to work all of a sudden. Que es milagro!

Well, I went through with the Format and went back to my old OS, Windows ME... Everything is working all well again, but since I got XP through my school's server and had no disks, the tech support had a hell of a time figuring out how to Format everything, since there are more security devices that don't enable an easy Format without them... Either way, two days later, 2 Formats later, and 3 ME installations later, I am finally back to normal. Well almost, I still don't have my audio drivers installed, and the ones on Dells website aren't working for shit right now...

Oh well, all it basically normal again.

Reinstall XP now. Or does that make it stop working again?

Well, I'm not because evidently that was the problem... Although it worked for at least a year, but all the sudden became incompatible. I still don't really understand what the hell happened, but I'm actually kind of happy it did. I really needed to Format anyway, and now my computer is running much more efficient, crisp, and Diablo free.

Still, I couldn't stand ME when I had it, and I dunno how long you will last either.

Dude. ME sucks.... I feel your pain.

Since you got your computer working again why don't you just download XP pro burn it on a disk and reload again? At least you will get your audio working again, aside from the fact that you won't have to deal with ME ever again...

Well, once I get my sound back I'll be fine. All I use is AIM, Winamp, Media Player, Word, Excel, Minesweeper, Outlook, and nothing else really. ME handles that fine, and that is fine by me. All my technical stuff I need to do is in my ECE Lab at school.