Ok this is a little weird but I have no idea on what I can do to fix it.

I was cleanning out a previous win2000 install and install red hat 9.0. (not a dual boot)

I reformatted the drive and got to the 3 cd and a pop up said that it was unable to load one of the programs from the cd and to try again. So I took the cd out and cleaned it off and tried again, no luck.

I tried several times after that and could never get past the first cd. The cd would start clicking at defferent times and would not finish the install. I can get all the way to the loading of rpms.

So I grabbed a cdrom drive I had laying around and tried again. But the cdrom is not reconzied and the busy light just gives a steady blink.

So what can I do. I need to replace the cdrom but I don't know how to do this not having any OS.

Make sure the IDE cable is installed correctly i.e. red strip closest to pin 1. Make sure the jumper is configured for the correct location i.e master/slave.

I am not sure what replacing the CDROM drive has to do with not having any OS.

Ouch. Since you've got a normal CD Drive (or at least another) in addition to the CDROM you could use a CD Bootable linux that can burn off CD's to burn a new set... if you can get a copy, Knoppix would work. Probably easiest just to get another set of disks though.

The CD's are fine it is the cdrom drive that is not working.

What about drivers or anything like that?

I looked at the back of the old cdrom and copied the location of the jumpers to the new drive.

It still just did a steady blink. Is there anything else I can possibly do. BTW the cdrom drive is a cdrom rewritable the original was just a regualr cdrom.

Thanks.

The installer should be able to recognize the drive without any problems.

Does the BIOS recognize the drive?

Yes it does.

In the bios it says something like cdzip, it is an Iomega.

Jumper settings don't change from drive to drive do they?

The jumper position layout might change but the functions do not.

Is the drive conneted to the 1st or 2nd IDE controller?

The first.

There is only one cdrom drive and I placed it in exactly the way the other one was.

Check the jumpers layout (which should be on the drive somewhere) and make sure it's not set to Cable Select adn that it is set to the opposite of the other device on the chanell. If there isn't another device, just make sure it's not set to cable select. FYI, if the drive just has abbreviations stamped on the metal CS corresponds to Cable Select, MA to master, and SL to slave.

I just assumed that you had bad disks, as the first drive couldn't read them entirely and the second drive wouldn't read them at all (and I assume it's seen in the BIOS from your other statement...).

Ok I'll check that out. Thanks for all the help.

Ok well I looked at the back of the cdrom and it was on cable select which the other one was on. I changed the new drive to master and no luck, tried the slave no luck. Nothing worked. What else can I do.

If I place the old one back on I can get started on the install but will soon crash.

So any more options.

When you put an ATAPI drive on an IDE cable, turn it on and the drive light blinks steadily, it can mean that you have the IDE cable upside down. I've done that before.

BIOS must recognize the drive before you get any farther.

First drive may be ok. 3rd install disk may be corrupt.

Well I'll check the cable. I have installed 2 servers with these disks and the fact that I can't get past the first half of disk 1 tells me me cd drive is going out. Along with all the strange noises it makes when running.