Where is Drive Letter?

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Guest

I just installed a DVD r/rw. I set the jumper on drive to master and the
other CD drives jumper to slave, and now I only see one drive (DVD) letter.
Where did CD drive letter go? When I go to device manager it says its
working properly, but it doesn't. I've tried to put a CD in the drive but
nothing happens. What could be the problem?
 
If your system is relativly new, set both drives to "CS" (cable select).

Bill Crocker
 
Bill said:
If your system is relativly new, set both drives to "CS" (cable
select).
Bill Crocker
Click to expand...

Huh?! Cable select is unnecessary these days. I'm surprised drives still
have the option. Master/slave is the correct method of setting up opticals -
indeed any drive. I've not used CS as a setting for years (though my
father's Optiplex still insists on it).
 
CS didn't work.
So, I put it back the way I had it. DVD master, CD Slave.

But still no CD drive letter, and it won't work though device manager says
it works fine.
 
If you put a disc in, and the drive does not respond (no light on the
front), I would suspect either the power connector is not seated properly,
or the drive itself is defective. Even when the M/S is set wrong, the drive
should still spin up when a disc is inserted.

Bobby
 
Miss Perspicacia Tick said:
Huh?! Cable select is unnecessary these days. I'm surprised drives still
have the option. Master/slave is the correct method of setting up
opticals - indeed any drive. I've not used CS as a setting for years
(though my father's Optiplex still insists on it).
Click to expand...

Absolute nonsense. As Bill Crocker recommended, cable select is most
certainly the way to go with modern drives and motherboards. By setting all
your devices (hard drive(s) and optical drives) to cable select, it
facilitates the configuration of these devices. With CS, it's the position
on the IDE cable that determines its Master/Slave relationship. Thus, when
the device is attached to the end connector of the IDE cable, it is
configured as Master; connecting it to the middle connector of the cable
configures the device as Slave. Once you've set the jumper(s) to CS there's
no need to change the jumper setting should you change the Master/Slave
relationship of the device(s). Again, it's the position on the IDE cable
that determines whether it is Master or Slave. It is assumed that you will
be using a standard 80-wire 40-pin IDE cable to connect these devices.

Art
 
Art said:
Absolute nonsense. As Bill Crocker recommended, cable select is most
certainly the way to go with modern drives and motherboards. By setting
all your devices (hard drive(s) and optical drives) to cable select, it
facilitates the configuration of these devices. With CS, it's the position
on the IDE cable that determines its Master/Slave relationship. Thus, when
the device is attached to the end connector of the IDE cable, it is
configured as Master; connecting it to the middle connector of the cable
configures the device as Slave. Once you've set the jumper(s) to CS
there's no need to change the jumper setting should you change the
Master/Slave relationship of the device(s). Again, it's the position on
the IDE cable that determines whether it is Master or Slave. It is assumed
that you will be using a standard 80-wire 40-pin IDE cable to connect
these devices.

Art
Click to expand...

I agree that CS is coming back into fashion, but its utility depends on
where the devices are in the case, and how easy it is to move them so that
the cable will reach properly with the configuration you want. Manufacturers
are using CS a lot, but they often have cables that are designed
specifically to fit their case configuration, so there's no other way to
plug things in.

Personally, I prefer master and slave settings because I know that they
aren't going to change if someone decides to go in there are start swapping
cables. It's hard enough for most people to remember which way the red
stripe is supposed to go, without also having to remember which of two
drives (which look identical to them) belongs on the end of the cable.

Then again, I've threatened to assemble certain computers with tamperproof
screws, just to keep that sort of fiddling under control.
 
Please see my inline comments...

D.Currie said:
I agree that CS is coming back into fashion, but its utility depends on
where the devices are in the case, and how easy it is to move them so that
the cable will reach properly with the configuration you want.
Manufacturers are using CS a lot, but they often have cables that are
designed specifically to fit their case configuration, so there's no other
way to plug things in.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure I quite understand this. What does cable length have to do with
a Cable Select configuration? While it is true that cable length is
dependent upon the physical placement of the IDE devices in the computer
case, it wouldn't seem that there's any relevancy as to the jumper
configuration of these devices.
Personally, I prefer master and slave settings because I know that they
aren't going to change if someone decides to go in there are start
swapping cables. It's hard enough for most people to remember which way
the red stripe is supposed to go, without also having to remember which of
two drives (which look identical to them) belongs on the end of the cable.
Click to expand...
But that's precisely the beauty of configuring your devices with Cable
Select. Using CS, the Master/Slave relationship depends upon how the device
is connected to the IDE cable, i.e., middle or end connector. Thus, you're
never concerned with jumper settings. It's a real plus when you're working
on computers.

Art
 
Art said:
Please see my inline comments...


I'm not sure I quite understand this. What does cable length have to do
with a Cable Select configuration? While it is true that cable length is
dependent upon the physical placement of the IDE devices in the computer
case, it wouldn't seem that there's any relevancy as to the jumper
configuration of these devices.
Click to expand...


If you're using cable select, the master has to be at the end of the cable,
as you said. Depending on where the drives are in the case and the
configuration of the cable, it might not work out to have the drive you want
as master to be at the end, and for the slave in the middle. For example, if
you wanted a hard drive as master and CD as slave on the same IDE, but your
hard drive bays are closer to the mobo and the CDs are way at the top, there
might not be enough cable length to get the middle portion up to the CD and
then the end all the way back down to the hard drive. You may have no other
choice than to have the middle connector on the hard drive and the end
reaching up to the CD. Never mind about the argument about a hard drive and
CD on the same cable, it's just an example.

On some computers, and with plenty of cables at the ready with a variety of
lengths and distances between connectors, it may not be an issue because you
can probably hunt up a cable that will fit the case configuration or move
the drives to make it work better. But sometimes you've got to work with
what you've got, and if the cables don't reach, they don't reach, and if the
drives can't be moved far, there's nothing you can do about that, either. So
the master's going to have to be set by jumper so it can be plugged into the
middle connector and still work as master.

It has nothing to do with the jumpers themselves.

If you were questioning my comment about the oems, if you've looked at some
of those lately, you'll find that the cables are made to fit exactly where
they are, with no way to plug them in differently or move the drives very
far. So if someone unplugs the cables, they've got a real good chance that
the cables are going to go back the same way again, so there's no chance
master and slave could change. It might also have something to do with ease
in assembly for the oem. They can probably order all their drives set to CS
and not worry about it when the computers are assembled because there's only
one way it's all going to fit, and there's no need to have anyone change
jumpers around as part of the process.

With a home-built or custom-build system that uses standard length cables
and a more configurable case, chances are there are multiple ways those
cables could get plugged in. So there's greater chance someone could
inadvertenly switch master and slave just by pluggin in the cables in a
different order.

I really don't think either way is better than the other, just what works
best for you. In my experience, people are more likely to unplug cables than
they are to move jumpers. So setting the drives for master and slave via
jumper is less likely to get changed accidentally than using the position on
the cable to determine which is master.
 
I do not see how this is solving the problem. I to cannot see the new drive I
have installed, the device manager recognizes it, but it does not show up in
explorer.
 
Sorry. The discussion got sidetracked.

Couple things to check:

Does it show up in Disk Management? If so, you can assign a drive letter
there.
Do you have any of the Windows Powetoys installed. There's one that lets you
"hide" drive letters. Maybe that's what happened.
It might be that the drive want the same letter as something else there.
I've seen this happen with things like USB drives that want a letter already
in use. Try changing the DVD drive letter to something else, and see if the
CD reappears.
 
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