Drives not recognized one day.

[VBAHole22]

So one day I turn on my computer and my drives are no longer recognized.
They are getting power.
I have a dvd and a cd drive.
I haven't moved my machine around lately so I don't think it can be a bad connection.
I have XP. It's a Dell 2350.
Device Mangler says everything is working fine but the drives don't show up in the hardware list.

What can I do?

 

[micker377]

Go into BIOS setup and see if they show up there. Also check the time/day setting, the CMOS battery may have failed and lost the settings.

 

[VBAHole22]

Date Time is correct.
The CD drive shows up as 2nd slave but the second master is blank.
That should be the dvd drive.
It's getting power and I can open the door and all.
Should I just crack the case open and snug the cables?

 

[VBAHole22]

Now I did a bad thing!
I read somewhere about a registry fix for this issue.
So I went in and deleted a few keys, now I am really screwed!
When I boot I can't get the keyboard or mouse to work.
Dam. I always make a bad issue worse by impatience.

I backed up the registry at least before I did that. but how do I get back in and restore it when I can't even log in anymore?

I'm so screwed

 

[VBAHole22]

Okay
I overreacted there. XP is really good about this. I hit F8 as it was booting and there was an option to boot to the last know good spot. So I got back in the game.

Still no cd or dvd drive. But a lesson learned. I can be a little more patient about the drives as long as my machine still works.

 

[TekTippy4U]

check the BIOS for 'Auto' in the IDE config settings for Secondary Master

Open the case...you must get BIOS to recognize the drive.

TT4U

Notification:
These are just my thoughts....and should be carefully measured against other opinions.
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