hard drive changed into a cd rom drive

[Guest]

After restarting my computer my Hard drive transformed into a Cd rom drive
and won't turn back even after restarting again.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

After restarting my computer my Hard drive transformed into a Cd rom drive
and won't turn back even after restarting again.

I think it'll be helpful if you rephrase this as a question, with a little
more detail and more clarity.

Are you saying that the system boots only from CD now? Or that the icon in
My Computer has changed? Or....?

-pk

 

[Guest]

I'm sorry about that. The hard drive i am talking about is not my primary
hard drive, but one just for storage. Basically, the icon for my hard drive
in My Computer has changed into a cd-rom drive icon. If I try to run a
program that was installed on that drive it asks me to insert a cd. Also it’s
a built in hard drive and not an external one.

 

[Noozer]

I'm sorry about that. The hard drive i am talking about is not my primary
hard drive, but one just for storage. Basically, the icon for my hard
drive
in My Computer has changed into a cd-rom drive icon. If I try to run a
program that was installed on that drive it asks me to insert a cd. Also
it's
a built in hard drive and not an external one.

So, if you go into My Computer, how many icons are there?

It sounds like your hard drive might have died and your CD got the drive
letter.

 

[Guest]

Well all my icons that were there in the past are still there, including my
real cd-rom drive. But I do think my hard drive is dead.

 

[dobey]

Well all my icons that were there in the past are still there, including
my
real cd-rom drive. But I do think my hard drive is dead.

So is the "changed" hard drive still the same hard drive, or is it actually
a CD drive?

I don't think I have ever seen XP shift drive letters around once they are
assigned, regardless of removing disks etc.

Do you have a file called autorun.inf in the root of the HDD. I'm not sure
if this applies to XP but I believe it can cause Windows to think the drive
is a CDROM.