CD-RW and DVD-RW drives appear as hard disk drives in 'My Computer'

[Keith]

After moving my system (XP1800+, A7M266, 9600XT, 1 Gb DDR, 2 x Seagate
HDD, Pioneer DVD-RW, LiteOn DVD-R) into a new case, I noticed that for
some reason my two optical drives are now listed as hard disk drives
under 'My Computer' in Windows XP Pro.

I've checked and reattached the cables, and tried uninstalling and
reinstalling the CD/DVD drives (both on the secondary IDE channel) -
this seemed to fix the problem but when I next rebooted the computer,
they were listed once again as hard disk drives.

I'd appreciate any suggestions.

Keith

 

[Ron Sommer]

How are they detected in the Bios?

 

[Keith]

How are they detected in the Bios?

They're detected fine, and the drives seem to work OK in Windows XP,
just not sure why they would show up as 'Hard Disk Drives' rather than
under 'Devices With Removable Storage'.

I can't think what might've changed other than me moving the board and
drives into a new case.

 

[R. McCarty]

Look in the Registry and make sure the devices are properly listed
in the appropriate category:
HKey_Local_Machine\System\CurrentControlSet\Enum\IDE

When you expand that key - you should see all of your IDE based
peripherals there.

 

[Keith]

Thanks, had a look there just now. The devices are properly listed there
ie. CdRomLITEON..., CdRomPIONEER... (the 2 optical drives), DiskST...,
DiskST (the 2 hard disk drives).

But still all the drives appear under Hard Disk Drives in My Computer!

I've just tried to have a look at the drives using the Logical Disk
Manager in Windows XP administrative tools - but can't start the logical
disk management service - 'Error 2 - the system cannot find the file
specified'. (When I try to start the Logical Disk Management
Administrative service, I get the following error: 1068 - the dependency
service or group failed to start, which is strange because under
properties *this* service has no dependencies listed!)

I also tried using 'sfc /scannow' in the hope that it would fix things -
to no avail.

Keith

 

[R. McCarty]

You need to check your Services & their Start modes. I would look
at Removable Storage driver and make sure it's started. It's default
mode is manual.
While you are at it, I would check the System Event Log for errors.

 

[Keith]

Removable Storage driver is running as manual mode. I've had a look at
the system event log and can see a number of repeated errors relating to
the service control manager (event ID 7023):

"The Logical Disk Manager service terminated with the following error:
The system cannot find the file specified."

These errors have been repeated in the event log as I've tried (and
failed) to start the service.

Any ideas on how to get the service working - and whether that might
explain why my CD/DVD drives appear as hard disk drives in My Computer?

Thanks,

Keith

 

[R. McCarty]

Logical Disk Manager runs via SvcHost. It's also set to be dependant
on Plug&Play and Remote Procedure Call services.

In almost all cases, you should never have any errors in the System
log. I can't say for sure, but your miss-identified CD/DVD's is likely
a Service related error.

The cleanest approach is to clear both Event logs, shut down and
reboot. As soon as the PC is back up - revisit the logs and note the
sequence of errors. The 1st error in the System log should direct
you to the cause, as other errors may spawn from that first one.

 

[Keith]

Okay, strange, rebooted and left the computer running for a few hours -
and not one error in the System log. A lot or perhaps all of the errors
on the old log were probably due to me trying to start the logical disk
management service. Still can't start it though, and the CD/DVD drives
still show as hard disk drives.

 

[Keith]

Solved it, booted into Safe Mode, where the drives appeared as normal,
deleted the drives from Device Manager and rebooted normally into
Windows - they now show up properly as "devices with removable storage"
under My Computer.

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[Keith]

Spoke too soon - restarted again and lo and behold, the drives are
showing as hard drives again. :-(