Since I installed XP, I have had a problem about once a month where neither the built-in cdrom or the external freecom portable are seen by the system. System checks say that the drivers are corrupt, uninstalling them makes no difference even if you specify where the drivers are to be found. (This includes downloading drivers from the net). The CDROMs work in Linux which is also installed on the machine, and today I booted from the XP install disk and ran the repair install. The CDROMs are still not recognised and I get the same message. I don't want to carry out a clean install if I can avoid it. Any suggestions?

See Alex Nichol's fix for the 'disappearing CD drive(s)' problem
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpcd.php#problems
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Cari
MS-MVP Windows Technologies - Printing/Imaging/Hardware
www.coribright.com

"Alan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:C2C91B60-88E8-4373-B874-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Since I installed XP, I have had a problem about once a month where
> neither the built-in cdrom or the external freecom portable are seen by
> the system. System checks say that the drivers are corrupt, uninstalling
> them makes no difference even if you specify where the drivers are to be
> found. (This includes downloading drivers from the net). The CDROMs work
> in Linux which is also installed on the machine, and today I booted from
> the XP install disk and ran the repair install. The CDROMs are still not
> recognised and I get the same message. I don't want to carry out a clean
> install if I can avoid it. Any suggestions?