Missing optical drive... none of the fixes work

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  1. Posts : 33
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
       #1

    Missing optical drive... none of the fixes work


    I have an Acer Power FH system with a Memorex CD/DVD optical drive.
    Was using Windows XP and just did a clean install of 7 on a new drive.

    The drive doesn't show up in my computer, or in device manager. It was available in XP and shows in BIOS. It showed briefly the first time I booted into windows 7, but when I double clicked it, it disappeared and never came back.

    Maybe relevant: - it's a PATA drive and I'm using an adapter to connect it to one of the SATA slots on the motherboard. Dunno if it matters but it's set as a slave on channel 3, with the win7 boot drive being the master on channel 3. My other drives, both PATA and SATA, are showing up ok.

    ---

    Fixes I've googled that don't work:

    · Removing upperlimit and lowerlimit registry entries at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

    · Disabling driver signing verification under the windows 7 boot options

    · Manually disabling via command line with bcdedit -set loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS

    · Downloading windows updates, including
    Download details: Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB974332)

    · Showing hidden devices in device manager, scanning for new hardware, useless windows troubleshooter.

    ---

    Am I hosed or what? Time to buy a new drive? Maybe rearranging things so the drive is connected via IDE cable?
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 3,141
    Vista Ult 64 bit Seven Ult RTM x64
       #2

    Hello CreeDo,

    Welcome to Seven Forums.

    There may be a setting in bios to activate the sata port.

    Hope this helps.

    Gary
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 2,573
    Win7 Ultimate X64
       #3

    Check disk management to see if drive is showing up
    Right click my computer>manage>disk management

    Or from a command prompt type, diskpart, list disk and see what comes up should show you drive and tell you drive status ie online/offline/error

    Hope this helps
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 33
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #4

    Thanks for the ideas so far...

    gary - Does that mean enabling the particular sata slot I've got it plugged into? I know that sata slot works... also sometimes I've seen the drive appear on a couple of occasions for just a few seconds. If activating the port can still work, where is that in bios usually?

    Pauly - it's not in disk management. Since my original post I installed some windows updates, and on the next reboot the drive showed up twice... once as an unknown drive type, and on the next boot as a CD/DVD drive. In both cases, the drive disappeared after a few seconds. In the second case it actually let me copy a couple of files then disappeared in the middle of the copy, causing an error.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 2,573
    Win7 Ultimate X64
       #5

    Generally in bios sata ports can be set to work in different modes normally raid/ide/ahci try changing between achi and ide see if it helps, have you doubled check the drive is connected properly all plugs are pushed fully home, try unplugging and replugging nothing to lose
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 2,685
    Windows 7 Ultimate x86-64
       #6

    Change the channel. It appears your motherboard doesn't support 2 devices on the same channel. Either that or buy a new optical drive with a SATA interface.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 33
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #7

    WHOA. Frostmourne. You are THE MAN. Seriously. You are definitely my hero for at least the next week.

    This problem is so common and so few good fixes are posted. I just swapped two of the sata connections so that they're on different channels and it's golden. All other drives are still there. Hopefully it sticks. Thanks so much! Was driving me nuts. Thanks also to the other posters in this thread.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 33
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #8

    AGHHH bump :/

    It isn't fixed. It consistently disappears shortly after boot.

    Memorex support sucks for the drive... after lots of digging I found links to firmware updates for my drive. Every link is 404. I searched google for the filenames of these drivers and found only one out of 4. That one failed to work (an error about the drive not being found).

    In short, the drivers are either impossible to find or suck, and without them I can't seem to keep this drive from disappearing in windows 7. It will appear and work for a short time. I don't know what changes to make it disappear. It's gone in device manager too.

    Help?
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 2,685
    Windows 7 Ultimate x86-64
       #9

    I'd replace the drive with a brand new SATA model - the one I bought is a GH 22 series, and no it does not have Bluebird.
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 33
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #10

    Frost, thanks for checking back in on it. I'm probably going to have to end up doing that. It kills me though, throwing away a perfectly good drive. It's just a software issue, it worked (and still works) great in XP.

    Right this second, it's working fine. It just stops after a little while and disappears.

    Is there any use knowing this bit of info? In event viewer I can see when it disappears. There's an error from the service control manager. The error isn't helpful, just says "The following boot-start or system-start drivers failed to load: cd-rom"
      My Computer


 
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