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CD-ROM drive locked by disk utility

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by loketar 1 view

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While in windows explorer(win98)I tried to execute a self-extracting exe file, upon double clicking the file win98 locked up solid. After re-booting the box there was no cd-rom drive to be found in the system properties box. I needed to tell the bios the drive was there, and even after windows recognized the drive I still could not access data on it. In explorer the error message read "cannot access drive D the device is not ready" When trying to access the drive via a norton 2k virus scan the error message read "the drive you trying to scan is locked by a disk utility, unlock the drive and try again" I have removed the drive and tried it a whole different system and have had the same results.
Also I replaced the drive in question with a known good drive and had no problems. Has the drive given up the ghost? I have not had a drive become locked out like this before and as far as I know there are no disk utils on that system that would lock the drive so that it cannot be accessed by any other box. Anyone run into a similar situation?

9 replies

by kevin_b

That's a new one to me, but I would suggest going to the manufacuturers web page and see if they have any support info on it. Failing that, if it is still in warranty, send it back and tell them it quit working.

Good Luck!

by loketar

I have gone and checked for firmware updates, driver updates, old dos cd-rom utils for command like lock-unlock and there are none.

by dheupel

Is this a SCSI CD-ROM? If so, see if you can enter the SCSI setup routine within the SCSI BIOS on your SCSI adapter - you should be able to "unlock" the device from there.

by dheupel

OK, then try this. In Device Manager, navigate to the CD-ROM drive, and change the drive's assigned letter, to F: or something other than D:. Restart the computer, and see if you can access the drive. If so, great, and then immediately scan your entire computer for viruses. If no viruses are found, restart the computer again. Hopefully, you'll still be able to access the CD-ROM. Then see if you can reassign the drive letter D: back to it.

by loketar

Already tried that with no success, the system is virus free. Actually I am more concerned to know if there is a disk util that can lockout a cd-rom drive making it unusable even if it is moved to another system??? I assume that the drive is just toast. any more ideas and the points are yours.

by dheupel

Hi - well since both of those suggestions didn't work, and that the CD doesn't work on another PC, it sounds like maybe the drive has failed. Good luck to you.

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