Wierd Win98 drive recognition problem

[Don Rojo]

Hi,
I built this PC a few years ago and hav always had a problem with the
dirve recognition in Win98. I get this non-existent drive showing in
'My Computer' and Windows Explorer. AND, my CD drive raely shows up. I
have three hard drives in the PC, partitioned as Drives C:, D:, E:,
F:, G:, H:, I:, J:, and K:. Those partitions all show up correctly in
wondows. But windows also shows a Drive L:, with an unusual drive
icon: a grinning cow! That non-existent drive is, according to the
'properties' a CD-RW drive, but it is always un-accessible. And my
actual CD-RW drive, when it does rarely show up, shows up as M: drive.


So I have a double problem here: how to get ris of the non-existent L
drive and how to get the PC to find my CD-RW drive.

I tried installing a new CD drive, but it makes no difference: the CD
drive only shows up about once in every 30 boot-ups.

I've no idea whee the grinning cow icon came from. I have a vague
recollection that it might have appeared after installing some
shareware program or other. Another thing that may have be relevant in
all this is that once, I had one of thpse LS-120 floppois in the PC as
well as the normal Floppy drive. But that LS-120 drive was taken out a
long time ago - but I can;t remember if that was the same time that
these problems started.

I have relinstalled Win98 several times but it makes no difference.
The motherboard is an Abit BH6 with a Celeron A300.

Any suggestions, other than buying a new computer, would be greatly
appreciated.

Thank you.

Don

 

[JAD]

you have a 'drive imager' loaded?

 

[seabat]

snip<

Have you tried going into SafeMode and then into system properties and
eliminate any extra/duplicate drives showing under your CD-ROM
catagory?

 

[MJP]

Hi,
I built this PC a few years ago and hav always had a problem with the
dirve recognition in Win98. I get this non-existent drive showing in
'My Computer' and Windows Explorer. AND, my CD drive raely shows up. I
have three hard drives in the PC, partitioned as Drives C:, D:, E:,
F:, G:, H:, I:, J:, and K:. Those partitions all show up correctly in
wondows. But windows also shows a Drive L:, with an unusual drive
icon: a grinning cow! That non-existent drive is, according to the
'properties' a CD-RW drive, but it is always un-accessible. And my
actual CD-RW drive, when it does rarely show up, shows up as M: drive.

Uninstall clonecd, that is the source of the virtual drive.

With regard to recognition of the other drive, check the manufacturers
documentation with regard to jumper settings particularly if it is a Western
Digital drive.

MJP

 

[Toy]

Hi,
I built this PC a few years ago and hav always had a problem with the
dirve recognition in Win98. I get this non-existent drive showing in
'My Computer' and Windows Explorer. AND, my CD drive raely shows up. I
have three hard drives in the PC, partitioned as Drives C:, D:, E:,
F:, G:, H:, I:, J:, and K:. Those partitions all show up correctly in
wondows. But windows also shows a Drive L:, with an unusual drive
icon: a grinning cow! That non-existent drive is, according to the
'properties' a CD-RW drive, but it is always un-accessible. And my
actual CD-RW drive, when it does rarely show up, shows up as M: drive.


So I have a double problem here: how to get ris of the non-existent L
drive and how to get the PC to find my CD-RW drive.

I tried installing a new CD drive, but it makes no difference: the CD
drive only shows up about once in every 30 boot-ups.

I've no idea whee the grinning cow icon came from. I have a vague
recollection that it might have appeared after installing some
shareware program or other. Another thing that may have be relevant in
all this is that once, I had one of thpse LS-120 floppois in the PC as
well as the normal Floppy drive. But that LS-120 drive was taken out a
long time ago - but I can;t remember if that was the same time that
these problems started.

I have relinstalled Win98 several times but it makes no difference.
The motherboard is an Abit BH6 with a Celeron A300.

Any suggestions, other than buying a new computer, would be greatly
appreciated.

Thank you.

Don

Is it a Jersey or Friesian.......it can make a difference.

toy

 

[AndrewJ]

I tried installing a new CD drive, but it makes no difference: the CD
drive only shows up about once in every 30 boot-ups.

That and many of the other problems you list are the classic signs of
an over loaded PSU. Nothing taxes a PSU like drives. Many of them spin
up all at once. The ones with enough juice are detected at bootup, the
drives with out enough juice, aren't.

 

[Don Rojo]

Aha! Thank you! I'm so glad to find out what that non-existent drive
was!
The jumber settings were one of the first things I looked at. They are
correct.

Don

 

[Don Rojo]

I'm not sure. What is a drive imager?

Don

 

[JAD]

MJP's post...

I'm not sure. What is a drive imager?

Don

 

[Don Rojo]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I don't think that's the cause. I've
disconnected my secondary master and secondary slave drives, leaving
only one hard drive and the CD-RW drive - but there is no improvement
running the PC likat that. It still doesn't usually see the CD-RW
drive. I'm wondering if it's an IRQ conflict - but don't know how to
change the IRQ setting for the drive. Any suggestions, anyone?

Don

 

[JAD]

you have either of those set to CS?

Thanks for the suggestion, but I don't think that's the cause. I've
disconnected my secondary master and secondary slave drives, leaving
only one hard drive and the CD-RW drive - but there is no improvement
running the PC likat that. It still doesn't usually see the CD-RW
drive. I'm wondering if it's an IRQ conflict - but don't know how to
change the IRQ setting for the drive. Any suggestions, anyone?

Don

 

[Don Rojo]

What is CS? (Or what does CS stand for?) Thanks.

Don

 

[Don Rojo]

Cable select? No - I have the hard drive's jumper set as master and
the CD-RW's jumper set as slave. Neither is set as CS.

Don

 

[JAD]

ok what drive brand- western digital? have you set it to master
with slave or lone master?

 

[AndrewJ]

Cable select? No - I have the hard drive's jumper set as master and
the CD-RW's jumper set as slave. Neither is set as CS.

Don

Optical drives should never share the same cable as a HDD. Since the
max cable speed is always determined by the data speed of the slowest
drive.

 

[JAD]

could you link a page to that info relating to boards of 2 years or
less of age, or are you saying that's your opinion?

 

[Don Rojo]

Hard drive is a Seagate Barracuda ATA II. The jumper options are:

(1) Master
(2) Slave
(3) Master with non-ATA-compatible drive
(4) Cable select

I had it set as (1). Today, I also tried it with the (3) jumper
setting, but CD-RW drive still didn't show up.

Don

 

[JAD]

bios is set to 'auto detect' the IDE channels?....

I have seen this before on older HP- DHELLS ect.. where you simply
can't have the optical on the same channel as the HD

 

[Don Rojo]

I've tried all the options on the BIOS' Standard CMOS setup, regards
setting the type and mode for each drive. I've also run the BIOS'
Auto-hard-drive-detect thing which always registers the CD-RW as
"none". The BIOS is Award Modular Bios V4.51PG with Award Plug+Play
bios extension V1.0A.

Don