I've running Mandrake 8.0 for more than a year, but I've wondering if I should switch to red hat.

I'm thiking Mandreke killed my CD-ROM and CD writer becasue the last time they were working was under Linux.

My cd-rom died like 6 months ago after I left a disc on the unit and rebooted my computer.
When all the services were loading, after the the computer booted , the Cd-rom
became crazy because it seemed that the system wanted to mount the dirve and have it as a hard disk. But I'm not sure.


Two weeks ago the same thing happended with my cd writer. I left a CD-RW dics on the unit and it seemed like that wasn't a problem, unitl the third I rebooted the computer and the light of my HD kept flashing. The computer became very unstable and I remember I heard the noises of the CD writer burning and also when all the services were loading, it took longer than usual.

Any way, if someone can have an explanation for all these, that would be appreciatesd.

In the meanwhile, I'll put a note in my new cd-rom saying DO NOT LEAVE A DISC INSIDE

Thansk

Hmm, after much thought, I got to tell you that things worked better for me once I removed the tin foil pyramid over my bed.

Seriously though, I'm sure those things you listed only happened by chance. I've had only one cdrom go bad in the last 10 years. I've just thrown out the old ones because they were too slow. Now, that's reliable.

Now, putting floppy disc on your power supply and restarting machine a few times, will produce a 'clean' floppy, that's for sure.