Cdrom [gives error: "not ready"]

i cannot open D drive. Get message "not ready "
Please help me 2 know how to fix!
Have tried 2 install a new CdROM/Burner drive with same message result

 

Welcome.

From the information given - essentially none - would guess that software is missing. If a CD came with the drive, install it. But sorry, that's too simple; even a beginner would know that! and how to when the CD doesn't work? So would guess that windows may need to be re-installed (another how to? and how was it installed in the first place? do you have recovery disks?) , and a big step. Before you do anything drastic, could you provide more information? For example, age and brand of computer, kind of processor (intel, amd, other?), size of memory, and whether the CD drives (brand?) are retail versions? Have you installed anything before? are you familiar with hardware? built the computer?

 

My computer is Compaq, also 1998. The new cd/burner is L.G. had no disks with it.
Windows, all other drives are still working properly.
Just "not ready' when I try to open D!

 

How is the cdrom connected? Is it set as a master, slave or cable select? Is it connected to the primary IDE controller or the secondary controller? Is there any other device (cdrom or hard drive) connected to the same controller? The primary controller is the one that your hard drive is connected to. The secondary, obviously, is the other one.

 

Kellie,

We now know a little more; you probably had a cd drive and a restore cd when the computer was new, right? And the drive quit? Or does it still read CDs? The new CD-RW is an internal drive or is it external? If it's internal and you installed it yourself, Zander's questions are pertinant. it'seasy to make mistakes in setting jumpers, reversing cables, and there's the problem of lack of software with an OEM drive.

Suggest you use (or make) a windows startup disk, boot the computer with the disk in the floppy drive, and choose CD support from the opening menu. Put a CD in the drive before you start and if the drive's connected correctly and working, you can type dir at the A:\ promt to see the directory on the CD. Let us know if this works.

 

Sparrow's idea about booting from a startup disk is a good one, but... before you type the dir command at the command prompt, you need to first change drives. To do this, while at the a: prompt, type e: (or whatever drive your cdrom is) and press enter. The command prompt should change to the drive letter you typed (i.e. E:\>). Watch the screen while it's booting and it'll tell you what the drive letter is. It'll be different than in windows. If you only have one hard drive with one partition and one cdrom drive it'll be e: . Then, after you've switched drives, type dir followed by the enter key.

If you don't have a startup disk you can make one by clicking start>settings>control panel>add remove programs>startup disk.

 

dir e: at a:\> will work too. Never know how much members know.

 

You're right about that. Kellie lists his/her experience level as beginner so I thought I should mention it. Otherwise you'd have the contents of the a: drive showing up and we'd be thinking it was working in DOS. I try to never assume anything on this board as it can cause a lot of misunderstandings further down the road.

 

Take out the CD drive.
Look at the back. See the little plastic thing stuck on what appears to be a connection thing? That is called a jumper. The position of this jumper can be found by looking at the top of the drive. There is a diagram there, giving the Master, Slave, or CS [Cable Select] position of that jumper.
What is the current position of that jumper?
Now look at the ribbon that plugs into the drive. It has two places where a drive can be plugged in. Which one is it plugged into, the one on the end or the one that could be called the middle?

 

LOL, Mark. So much for me not assuming. But then I did say "I try to never assume anything ". I didn't say I always succeed. Thanks for jumping in though. A better explanation was probably in order.

 

the drive is set to slave ( somehow I knew that!? but that is where my knowledge has ended!) I have checked all the connections basically where ever I unplugged the old i plugged in the new.
havent tried the boot disk yet - need to build up the courage - have some documents ets to save b4 then cos I am scared to lose them!

 

Kellie
You can try a win98 boot disk without having to worry about hurting anything. All the dir command will do is list the contents of the cd. No different than looking at it in windows explorer except that it's all in text form. If you use the command and as a result see the list of files that are on the cd, you'll know that the drive works and that your problem with it in windows is software related rather than hardware. If you receive an error message after the command we'll know it's somehow hardware related. After you do the dir command, remove the floppy and ctrl-alt-delete to restart and boot to windows.