I'm not sure if this is a software or hardware issue.
I'm currently running CentOS 6.3 x86_64 and I want to completely rebuild this machine to CentOS 5.9 x86_64. That being said, what happens is I insert the CentOS 5.9 DVD and reboot the machine. It reads the DVD going through the normal process and after I hit the Enter key selecting a normal graphical install. At that point it no longer recognizes the DVD drive because it asks me what driver to use. The DVD drive is IDE. The hard drives are SATA II 1.5 TB each setup as software Raid-1.
To test the DVD drive I remove the disk and allow the system to do a normal boot. At that point I burned a CentOS 5.9 ISO without issue.
Why does the IDE driver go away?

TIA
Scrapper

The first thing I would recommend is to test the DVD in another machine, if only to rule out that the image or the burn might be faulty. If the DVD gets past the point of failure on another machine, it may well be the drive; at least, it will give you more certainty in the direction of your trouble-shooting efforts.

If the disk fails the test, all the effort you put in troubleshooting the drive might be misdirected.

Did you check the MD5 sum on the ISO before you burned the disk?

I actually took a drive out of another machine that is working perfectly and tried it again with the same results. Could it be an issue with the motherboard battery?

TIA
Scrapper

Just to be thorough, did you test the DVD in the other machine?

I doubt that it would be an issue with the CMOS battery. Usually the first sign of a bad CMOS battery is the system time getting reset to 1979 or something like that, but it wouldn't hurt to meter the battery just to be safe. If you don't have a meter and it's an old battery, it wouldn't hurt to replace the battery--they are usually CR2032s or equivalent and are dirt cheap.

I'd suggest checking the wiring to and from the drive bay, too.

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Download or double check the download you have with shal or md5.

Reburn the dvd at slowest speed and maybe use a different dvd burner.

Try again.

I suspect issue with reading the disk.

Might consider the network cd.

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Thanks loads for the suggestions. I'll have to wait until the weekend to do the suggestions, but I will try them all.

TIA
Scrapper

Finally had time to check things out and here's what I've found:

My DVD is a IDE drive and the hard disks are SATA.
It sees my DVD drive enough to get through the build boot for me to make a choice as to how to boot.
I let the machine boot from the hard disk and I can mount the DVD to see what's on it.
I can burn a data DVD and read it on another machine.

This I cannot explain.

TIA
Scrapper

Let me make sure I understand.

You can burn a disk.
You can open a disk and see the contents.
But you can't boot from the disk. It starts to boot from the optical drive and, at some point loses the drivers.

It is strange. I got nothing.

Have you tried booting from a disk containing live CD of another distro after testing it in a different computer first to make sure the disk works?

In the longshot department: It might also be worth while, if you haven't done so, to power down box and unplug and reseat all the plugs. There might be a bit of corrosion built up on one of the contacts.

I will try powering down and reseating the plugs. I'll also look at SATA DVD.

TIA
Scrapper