Reading D Drive

[Joe]

Hi,

I used Vista for the 30 days trial period. Currently, I am operating with
the reduced functionality mode. I am trying to reformat my hard drive to
windows xp, however my d drive is unable to read any discs, including my
reinstallation disc. How can I enable my d drive to read discs so that I can
use my reinstallation disc to reformat my computer?

Thanks,
Joe

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

Hi,

I used Vista for the 30 days trial period. Currently, I am operating with
the reduced functionality mode. I am trying to reformat my hard drive to
windows xp, however my d drive is unable to read any discs, including my
reinstallation disc. How can I enable my d drive to read discs so that I
can
use my reinstallation disc to reformat my computer?

Thanks,
Joe

Go into BIOS and change the boot order to CD drive first in the list, the
place your XP CD in the drive and follow re-installation instructions..

 

[Joe]

I did this, and the same thing happens as if I press F12 and boot from the
CD/DVD drive - Because it does not recognize data on the CD, it skips to the
next bootable drive on the list, and therefore I cannot boot from a CD
because my D drive doesnt recognize a CD. Is there a way to reinstall a
CD/DVD drive, or another way to work around this?

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

I did this, and the same thing happens as if I press F12 and boot from the
CD/DVD drive - Because it does not recognize data on the CD, it skips to
the
next bootable drive on the list, and therefore I cannot boot from a CD
because my D drive doesnt recognize a CD. Is there a way to reinstall a
CD/DVD drive, or another way to work around this?

When booting from the CD/DVD drive, Windows is not loaded in so no Windows
drivers are running anyway. You may have damaged installation media or the
drive itself is faulty or you have bad memory..

 

[Joe]

When looking at the D drive's properties, I accidently clicked "safely remove
drive". How can I add the drive back? Thanks.

 

[Malke]

When looking at the D drive's properties, I accidently clicked "safely remove
drive". How can I add the drive back? Thanks.

If your drive will not read when you are trying to boot from your XP
install disk, as Mike Hall told you this has *nothing* to do with
anything you set, removed, or didn't set in Windows.

Either the XP install disk is damaged or - far more likely based on what
you've written - the optical drive has failed. If the drive refuses to
boot a different bootable CD (such as a different XP install disk or a
bootable Linux disk, etc.) then you will know for sure it is the drive.
No amount of tinkering with an operating system can fix a broken piece
of hardware. In that case, replace the drive.


Malke

 

[Joe]

Thanks. I need a new optical drive.

Please help me out if you can:

In Vista, when looking at the D drive's properties, I accidently clicked
"safely remove drive". How can I add the drive back?

Thanks,
Joe

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

Thanks. I need a new optical drive.

Please help me out if you can:

In Vista, when looking at the D drive's properties, I accidently clicked
"safely remove drive". How can I add the drive back?

Thanks,
Joe

Go to Device Manager and uninstall the drive, then reboot. The drive should
then be found..