Installed RW CD drive, but

this village idiot is confused.

Here is what transpired:

1. I replaced the read only with the new drive and turned the machine on.

2. I got what I expected, hardware problem message so I pressed the Cntrl Alt Del keys to reboot, and, when the machine was booting, I pressed Del, as it says to do to enter set-up.

3. I went to auto detect and answered yes to all and saved to CMOS, whatever that is.

4. Still had same problem. I got boot disk failure, otherwise, hitting delete, I was back at the set-up page...and reset the CMOS as before to auto recognize hardware.

5. So, and here is what got me wondering, I replaced the old drive and started the computer and, as expected got the above again.

6. I then rebooted and entered set up, auto detect for all (y) and saved to CMOS. Voila, up and running?

I am fairly sure the new drive is okay, what might the problem be?

I really thought this exchange would be not a problem. I know the drive is NT compatable, so am at a loss at what is going on.

I know this is rudimentary stuff, but I also know I am a somewhat a ding-dong when it comes to stuff I do not do often, although I usually can muddle through after a time.

Thanks.

 

Have you checked (double checked) the jumper setting on the back if the new drive. Does the read/write LED flash momentarily upon power up, indicating that the drive is powered OK and doesn't have an internal fault?

 

Hi H,

The problem is probably jumper settings. Check whether you need it set master, slave or cable select.
Sounds like you are connecting it to the same cable as the "primary HDD" and have both as set as master. If you are putting it on that cable (the primary IDE cable) set the CDRW as slave.
The "boot" HDD should be set as master on the primary IDE (also known as IDE 1). An optical drive like the CDRW could be set to 1) slave on IDE 1; 2) master on IDE 2; or 3) slave on IDE 2.
If you're stuck, look at the jumper settings of the CDrom drive and set the CDRW as the same (since it sounds like you are just swapping them).

www.pcguide.com will be able to explain it better than me.

If you didn't get a User Manual for the CDRW, D/L one at their web site.

Matt

 

Just a small correction Matt. Normally the boot HDD would set as master on IDE0 with the CD(s) connected to IDE1. Or yes a CD could be connected as a slave to IDE0. Not ideal, but if you're squeezed for connections this will work.

But I know what you meant.

Just don't want to confuse Hive.

But I think I've confused myself.

 

The new drive does have poer, as I see the leds on

the front light up and so on.

I do appreciate the clarifications also. I need them

I neglected to mention that the original read only drive, that is back in the slot, does not have a connection to the slave/master conection on the back, only the analog audio, the 40 pin data and the power. So, I thought it would work similarly to the original set-up.

Funny thing, as I was laying in bed (it is 3 AM) awake - a critter was wondering around outside and woke me up (it is deer season here) - it occured to me that maybe I should try the set up one more time and then, if it does not work, which it likely will not, hook up the cable anyway? What could it hurt?

I do not know why an NT machine differes from 98SE in cable hook-ups, but I orgininally figured the system would find and set itself up for device.

Your comments lead me to see it is otherwise, and I appreciate the help.

Will give it a go tomorrow.

 

PC CD-RW install for information per above ...

Took some digging but I found some material that others may wish to record for later use. Still have to look into the jumper topic.

Drive install from PC World

 

That's good Paul, thanks. I wouldn't like to cause confusion with my forgetfulness (numbering starting at 1, what a silly concept!! )

Glad YOU, at least, know what I mean

Matt

 

Ignorance is not bliss

Before Paul or Matt go into laughing fits or hit me with the hammering on the head icon:

I finally figured the jumper business - it is okay to laugh, I am laughing at myself also.

So, I creep along and assemble brain, one neuron at a time.

As it is, am trying to locate the driver and seem to be getting better at this stuff. This is why beer is good and why I should be fishing...

 

"Glad YOU, at least, know what I mean "
Sorry Hive, maybe a bad choice of words. No offence meant to you in the slightest.

Maybe I should have written this:
Glad YOU, at least, know what I mean. Nobody else in the world does!!

I was pointing out my own inability to communicate.

Sorry again. Keep us informed of how you are going.

That's a good reference site you found.

Matt

 

Now what about this...?

"Windows® 95, 98, 2000, Me, NT 4.0

Drivers are not required to be downloaded. All necessary drivers are included in the OS, except for Windows 95/98. This means that your CD-RW drive will be detected as a CD-ROM drive "

at http://www.iomega.com/software/cdrwdrivers.html .

Apparently the drivers are in NT for the drive?

 

Yes Hive, that's correct. If the drive is connected correctly, Win NT should automatically detect and install it (it should then run the same way as the old CDrom drive).

To get it to burn CDs you need to install the burning program/software. Iomega says the drives will come with either "Iomega Hotburn" or "Roxio/Adaptec Easy CD Creator" software.

Matt
Note: Something I hope you have checked. The "system requirements ". Minimum requirements for an Iomega ATAPI CDRW drive is a Pentium 166Mhz processor.

System requirements for the Iomega Hotburn program are:
System Requirements:
Windows 95, 98, ME, NT4, 2000 and XP.
Pentium Class CPU or greater.
32 MB RAM (64 MB or greater recommended).
75 MB Hard drive space.
Supported USB, Firewire, ATAPI or SCSI CD-R/RW drive.
CD ROM drive or 740 MB free hard drive space to copy CDs.

You may well know all this, but when I went to get a new CDRW for a friends machine I found it did not meet the specifications. I was able to find another drive that would run on her system and that now works fine.

 

Mattman, I have

What works I think.

All the the above but USB and Firewire.

I have Nero also, so it may be slow, but when it runs, it should do the trick. I do not intend to download DVD until I re do partitions etc. (Running out of C space...

I appreciate your help and Paul's advice too. I have learned a lot of late.

 

At this point, a summary for others needing similar

help.

First, thanks to Mattman and Paul.

Drive seems to work, it loaded Nero.

Now to buy writeable cds and figure out Nero. I just want to use as backup for jpegs etc, and MS Office stuff.

Anyway, in summary, if I had set the jumper corrrectly, as Slave, things would have been simpler.

But, if that happened, I would not have learned all the other stuff about my machine: set-up, how NT OS works, internal hardware configuations, etc. I have much less a fear of computers than before, even though I always knew they were just a little bit smarter than me -

So, off I go, and will let you know how the device functions. And, report regarding drive format and repartition to install XP and add larger or second bootable drive. Can you imagine the questions then? Naw, will go over these threads again to pick up that stuff as I am sure the topic has risen.

Thanks much. Have good holiday!