windows 2000 recognizes dvd writer but no drive letter is assigned

Try using a new ide cable. Is the ide cable that you used work in the other computer? You could delete the ide channel the dvd burner is on then let windows install it automatically. Also most newer dvd burners need to use a 80 wire ide cable.

The driver for a DVD writer is part of the OS, no reason to try to replace it. I don't have W2000 on the machines here, but in XP: Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management>Storage>Disk Management' and see if it's listed there. If so, try to assign a drive letter to it. You might have to reboot, but it should appear with a drive letter.

If you get nowhere there, uninstall the IDE channel the drive is on in device manager and reboot. That should reset everything and reassign the drive letters. It won't damage any data on any of the drives.

Generally W2000 has no problems with adding new drives.

I'm running Win2k.

Looking at the device manager, my DVD drive has driver details:
c:\WINNT\system32\DRIVERS\cdrom.sys
c:\WINNT\system32\DRIVERS\redbook.sys
c:\WINNT\system32\storprop.dll

-- which are identical to those for my CDROM drive.
So try pointing Windows to these files, it may be looking for them in the original CDROM, which is no longer there.


As for how to reassign a drive letter:
Control Panel/Administrative Tools.
Computer Management/Storage/Disk Management,
Right-click on the box to the right of the words CD-ROM 0 (or 1 or 2 etc if you have more than one optical drive) and select the option "Change Drive Letter and Path" and rename it.

Does it have a yellow exclamation point in Device Manager, with an error like "The Device Cannot Start (Code XX)"?

Smells like a fresh install of the Windows 2000 would be needed. Let us know how things turn out.

You said you uninstalled the driver, but did you try uninstalling the IDE channel itself? In Device Manager, IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers. Right click on the IDE channel in question and choose 'Uninstall'. Then reboot. If you have done this, then probably a OS re-install may be the answer. The problem may be in some registry settings, but finding and fixing it there may be difficult.

i would start by checking your bios and make sure your mobo see's the drive

I'm no expert on disk partitions, as I don't use multiple partitions myself, no matter how large the drive. But you might look into Partition Magic as it might be able to do what you want. But if you have a missing partition, that's a serious problem and you may have some corruption of the existing files.

A reinstall of the OS should have no effect on any other disks except the boot drive. Maybe you have some other problems.

One question, you are running W2000, SP4? I've installed it on 5 computers in the last month and have never had any problems with it. It seems to work as well as XP as far as the onboard drivers. No complaints at all.

Maxtor has a "large drive enabler" patch for OS on the website.
Put your DVD drive as "cable select" and attach to cables in different positions (master/slave). If cable is OK then the device itself is a suspect (test in another (friend's) system).

Originally Posted by bmwracer

the second drive is 160GB: I think there was some kinda issue with Win2K/XP and a 137GB limit...

I'm pretty sure the data is still there, but I can't access it until I get the partition table restored... Any ideas or software recommendations to do that?

I've used TestDisk successfully to rebuild corrupt partition tables. It takes a while to analyse the disk, maybe a couple of hours for 160GB, so don't lose patience. It offers possible partitions based on that; if you agree you can let it write the new partition table.

Also, you could burn a Knoppix bootable disk and see what that makes of your drives. If it all works under Knoppix then it definitely is a Windows problem. Knoppix includes some disk tools like Gparted, similar to Partition Magic, but free.

TestDisk may be able to recreate the partition table ... though the alternative would be the more friendly Hard drive manufaturer's "drive copy" , "new install" diskette setup tools and transfer the data to a drive of the same size or larger .

Recovery of files beyond these is through drive rescue , able to see every partition that ever existed , and recover files , even those you though had been deleted ... but before all this .

Set all drives too CS , dont ask , just do it , as the explaination would be too long .
Boot into bios , and set drives to AUTO , and save .

As system boots , keep taping the F8 key to bring up menu
Choose "safe mode"
Enter system , hardware , device manager , and remove all "dvd/cdrom drives" listed
Remove the parent as well , being "dvd/cdrom devices" by name

Reboot pc .

System should pickup from there .

---------------------------------------

If the drive dose not have a letter asigned this time round , then the problem is not likely a file issue ... it will be a problem within the registry ... which windows use's to determin where the required file exists , and drive letter asignment ...

Always a good idea to backup the registry of a clean installed system ... there are a few programs out there that make changes they shouldnt , and make a mess of the registry .

For windows 2000 , check this registry value , and confirm drives listed

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\MountPoints

For mine , it's :

A (floppy)
C (hard drive)
D (dvd burner)
E + F (usb mass storage unit)

Note that this exists in about 3 places within the registry ...

It has also been well documented that assigning drive letters is not for newbies ... as they forget what they had done prior ... always make notes so you can undo any changes ... if not ... you reload the os from scratch .

Originally Posted by Bjs

TestDisk may be able to recreate the partition table ... though the alternative would be the more friendly Hard drive manufaturer's "drive copy" , "new install" diskette setup tools and transfer the data to a drive of the same size or larger.

I doubt any "drive copy" will work if the partition tale is corrupt.
Maybe you can do a binary image, but to recreate files from that you still have to build a partition table.

If part. table is corrupt TestDisk is the right tool for the job. Imaging won't work until the file system is fixed.
So, what is the status quo?

In Device Manager uninstall all DVD/CD drives, restart Windows which should reinstall the devices on reboot and hopefully correct the problem.