Windows 7: Power to disc drives, but no data reading

OK. Now check the jumpers on the drives. Drive 1 should be MA and drive 2 should be SL. If that doesn't work, then it could be the cable.

1. CD Drive... set jumper to MA
2. DVD Drive set jumper to SL

btw, that's an older style low-density IDE cable, you might have better performance with a high density cable that has ends colored like the one in Dwarf's post. Black/Gray/Blue

Ap

Any luck? What about temporarily disconnecting the DVD drive to see if the other CD drive is detected (simply remove the cables). Of course, it is quite possible (but unlikely) that you have damaged the cable when installing the DVD drive in the first place. In that case, I recommend trying a new cable, preferably one of the rounded type.

Ok I'll try that right now, I was mistaken earlier when I said that all the of jumpers are black, they are indeed Blue, White, and black, I simply had to unplug them to see it. I will unplug to dvd drive now to see if the CD drive is working properly by itself.

EDIT: Okay I unplugged the DVD drive and replaced it with a different CD drive.... My computer at least knows that this drive is there, however it refuses to recognize the original CD drive that I had in.

Although it still does not show up in "My Computer"....

Optical Drives
A@APA CD-R ATA Device
Media Type UNKNOWN
Name A@APA CD-R ATA Device
Availability Running/Full Power
Capabilities Random Access, Supports Removable Media
Config Manager Error Code Device cannot start
Config Manager User Config FALSE
Media Loaded FALSE
Status Error



I own several IDE cables, but I've never even seen one of the rounded type
Are there such things as 'universal' disc drives? That can read and write both dvd's and cd's?

Ok, since you have the black/white/blue cable you need to set both drives to CS (cable select) The cable will make the drive selections for you.

How am I supposed to do that when my computer doesn't seem to acknowledge their presence?

FLaTLiN3D

We are collectively thinking the reason the computer does not acknowledge the drives is because they are not setup correctly. Once the jumpers are in the right place with luck the BIOS and then the OS will see the drives.

Have you in fact adjusted the jumpers on the back of both the CD and DVD drives?

Ap

I think it may have simply been a defective cable. I took out the one I had an put one in from the CD drive to my motherboard and it works like a charm. Though the cord is only 2 sided, no place for a SL.

FLaTLiN3D