Storage

Ask something
Question Locked

cd and dvd drives not recognized

0 helpful
6 replies

by lorraine-ted

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.
suddenly my pc is not recognizing my cd and dvd drives.when i try to burn a disk a window opens to save image file.

6 replies

by langlier

Or can you go to My Computer and see your optical drives? If its only when burning a disc you likely have selected the burn to image or need to select your optical drive. If you cannot see them in My Computer can you see them in your bios?

by lorraine-ted

cannot find them at all. not in my computer and unsure how to look in bios [pc novice]

by older mycroft

you turn your computer off.

When you turn it back on you have to press (and hold down) F2 until you hear a high pitched beeping sound. You will open a window that looks like old DOS-based machines - a colourful blocky looking image. You scroll between the pages, and around each page, using the cursor keys ('coz your mouse won't work in your BIOS).

One of the pages will show details of your hardware including your CD and DVD drives. They will probably be called "IDE Drives".

If you can see them in the BIOS pages then it confirms that they are still working. Your problem then is that they just can't be seen by Windows.

To exit your BIOS, read the instructions at the TOP of the screen, it is likely to be either the "Esc" key of the "F10" key.

Re-post after to confirm they are in your BIOS.

by langlier

while booting your computer it "should" prompt you to press a certain key (usually one of del, f1, f2, f4, f10, esc) to enter CMOS/BIOS. from there you should be able to navigate by menus to your connected IDE drives. Verify that you can see your optical drives. If you cannot then you will need to take the side panel off the case and verify a few things.

1. The IDE cable is connected correctly and tightly.

2. The Drives are getting power.

3. The Jumpers are set correctly on both drives (Master on one slave on the other or Cable Select on both.)

Thats if you cannot see the drives in BIOS. If you can see them in BIOS then back in windows you will need to see if Device Manager/Disk Manager are both seeing the drives and assigning them a drive letter respectively. If you need further instructions let me know.

by cleerb

I'm having same problem. Drives register in BIOS and show in Device Mgr, but shows a Code 41 cannot find hardware device for both CD and DVD drives.

This discussion is closed to new replies.