Where did my drives go!?
 

Well i just got done installing Mandrake 9.2 over my previous Red Hat 9.

I must say i am very dissapointed. My sound card doesnt work, no internet, no printer. All of these were easily set up in RH.

Any who, i logged back into windows to come here to ask for help, and i find that both of my CD drives have dissapeared!

I watched the bios screen and it doesn't even detect and drives on the secondary ide!

This only happened after i installed mandrake! I may very well be unrelated, but it seems weird to me. I would just re-install windows XP and then do my linux over (NOT mandrake) but, with no cd drive showing, how can i even do that?

Any ideas as to what is going on?

I have tried resetting the bios with the jumper and it still doesnt work.

I am very upset at the moment, as i cant do anything at all to fix the problem.

Thanks for replies

Nathan

Nathan,

I feel your pain.

As I, myself am struggling with Linux to escape from all things Gates, I stumbled across a posting at this website that mentioned "LG" brand cd drives being destroyed by any installation of Linux. The clueless hardware manufacturer didn't bother to do any testing with Linux, and offers no workaround. Do a search for LG to see if you can read this info first hand, instead of Noob to Noob.

Best of luck,
Call me Bob

Bob,

I wouldn't think that this is that sort of problem. My cd burner is a lite-on rebadge and the cdrom is a compaq. I know both couldn't be LG

I also have installed Red Hat with no problem a few months ago.

Why would both drives not show up? I find it hard to believe that they both died at the same time. They don't even say anything in bios about them even being there. They should show up even if they don't work.

I have tried also switching out IDE cables but still no avail.. Maybe they did both die. Neither will open now when i press the eject button.

Thanks for the site though i will check that out just in case.

Nathan

Nathan,

I hesitate to ask, but do you have a THIRD cd drive that you could test with? The IDE cable checking was a good idea, I wouldn't have thought of that, but maybe the symptom, as painful as it might be, is that somehow both drives WERE killed, as I suggested from the post. The message was specific to Mandrake 9.2, a flavor I have used without success. I have used FOUR independently created copies, one of which was purchased new by me retail and I still get between 23 and 40 "errors reading package" during install. My configuration is not unusual at all. I replaced both cd drives, both IDE cables, different ram, different HDD, and still, a consistent botching of somethng as simple as an install.

Clueless Idiots!


Bob

Boy don't i feel like a complete computer idiot... :(

Turns out that while i tried three spare cdroms i never disconnected the compaq drive. With all disconnected and a spare drive hooked up, indeed it worked once again. So i tried the Lite-On CD writer alone. Worked.

Took out the compaq cd and looked at the lable. There it was. A big FAT LG symbol!!!! :(

Must have slipped my mind that it was still connected.

I guess i thought that both drives wouldn't be killed because i knew for a fact that the CD Writer was a Lite-On that has worked very well. And I installed using the lite on. Apparently some how the compaq (LG) still got screwed up. And also, even though it was the slave, it being screwed caused neither of them to register.

I am going to go try to see if i can find a firmware update for it, if not, oh well, its pretty old anyway, so no loss.

Whew! I was worried there for a minute.

Thanks for the help

Your resident computer idiot for the day,

Nathan