My cd-rom and my cd-rom burner have dissappeared!!

[end80]

I don't know where to post this.. I don't see a troubleshooting section..

Strangest thing has happened...
I moved recently and upon hooking my computer back up at my new place I have lost both my cd-rom, and my cd-rom burner..
The only thing different is that the local phone company came and hooked DSL here (no new cards or anything was installed in my computer for this, so I see no way that that should have affected anything).

If anyone has an idea, please let me know..
Here is the specifics:

In my device manager I show both the Samsung cd-rom, and the Sony cd-rw with exclamation points next to them.
The properties on these devices both show the same error: "Windows successfully loaded the device driver for this hardware but cannot find the hardware device. (Code 41)"

I have already tried uninstalling and removing both drivers and letting windows find them again - which is does, but the errors remain. - I have tried doing a rollback to a previous date (a feature of windows xp) - but it does not seem to want to roll back the system.
I tried everything I could think of to restore the drives to no avail..

Finally I called IBM tech support
My computer is a 1.8gz IBM NetVista running Windows XP Professional with 768mb of memory
.. Their solution is to wipe the system and reinstall windows...

Well, all very well and good.. probably what I'll end up doing.. but it so happens this computer is not just a recreational toy for me, it is also my source of income and I have a lot of programs I use which will take forever to reinstall them all.. and before I do that I'm going to have to chain up another hard drive to transfer a slew of important files I need to keep....


Anyway, I figure it couldn't hurt to check and see if this problem rings a bell with someone who may have experienced the same thing and knows how to correct it..

i REALLY DREAD THE THOUGHT OF WIPING AND REINSTALLING EVERYTHING!!

[kitty]

You might have lost an IDE channel. First I would check the cables inside to make sure they didn't work loose and are hooked up right.

Next I would go to Windows Control Panel, Select the System icon, click the Hardware Tab then the Device Manager button. Click the + nect to IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers to see if everything is ok - if you have a yellow i next to a device you'll have to troubleshoot. Also you can click the + next to DVD/CD-ROMS and check those devices also.

[end80]

I had already checked the cables, but I hadnt actually checked the IDE ATA/ATAPI untill now.. there were no error indicated there, but as I previously stated, there where exclamation points next to both cd-roms (but I already knew this)

Anyway, now I uninstalled not only the 2 cd-roms but the secondary IDE as well... when windows rebooted it found everything just fine and automatically installed the drivers... however the two cd-roms still has the exclamtion point errors indicators..

Bottom line, is that i am back where I started from.
Still no cd-rom or cd-rw

..sigh... I just don't get it

[kitty]

Ok, now click one of the drives with a yellow ! - it should tell you there is a problem or conflict. Maybe a resource they were using is now grabbed by another hardware device.

[phishwak]

Try this -

Run: REGEDT32 (Start - Run - 'REGEDT32')

Open:
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlS et\Control\Class\{4D36E965...}

Delete the "LOWER FILTER" entry on the right side of the screen.

Close the Registry Editor

Restart the computer.

[end80]

Wow dude, that was frickin' amazing..
Where did you learn that little peice of magic?
It worked!!

So tell me... what is it that you just had me do???

Oh, phishwak, -- thanks!!!!!!!

[end80]

Also Kitty.. I wan't to thank you for your responses and attempt to assist me.. but I think maybe you just breezed over my post before replying.. I already went through the steps you were outlining for me..

or perhaps it was me misreading you.. whichever.. the problem was corrected by messing with the registry as phishwak detailed.

Whatever he had me do.. worked.. and everything is back up and running.

But I really do appreciate Kitty's attempt to help as well.

Thanks for a great forum!