I use Win2000. I have a baffling problem. I boot up and the Drive E (my DVD-Rom) and Drive F (my CD-Rom) is viewable in MY COMPUTER and usable. I can load new software in those drives and install on my computer just fine. However the next time I boot up my computer I can't see them.
Here's the settings in BIOS (on Standard CMOS and the IDE HDD Auto Detection):
Primary Master: WD - my 40 gigabyte hard drive
Primary Slave: ARMD - Zip or my zip drive (250MB)
Secondary Master: Auto
Secondary Slave: Auto
Now I will just keep it at those settings and on one occasion it will start up and I can see immediately on the very first screen this text: "Detecting Secondary Master - ATAPI" and I know that I will be able to view and use both CD-Rom and DVD-Rom drives. On the next boot up I will see on the first screen this text: "Detecting Secondary Master - Not detected." Then I know that drives e/f will not be viewable. Meanwhile the settings haven't been changed. Any thoughts?
try changing the secondary ide from auto to user choice or what ever the other options are in the bios ,and or do a auto detect drives and choose Y for the drives it finds ,reboot and see what happens .
Another thing that has helped me with problems like this is to load defaults in BIOS Setup, save changes and reboot. You can then go back into BIOS Setup and make any changes you normally make.
A hearty "thank-you" to my two responders. Here's just a little more information to assist with understanding and possibly diagnosing this problem. I now see what happens in the BIOS - it actually changes the settings, by itself. In the STANDARD CMOS area the settings stay the same as I set them, but in the IDE HDD AUTO DETECTION area of BIOS the settings change from Auto to CD-ROM (secondary master) and Auto to Not Installed (Secondary Slave). Now how does that happen? I didn't change them, but they changed all by themselves. I can see very plainly that when the settings are set at AUTO on both the secondary master and slave that I can see the E & F drives. And I can use those drives. Now the trick is how to maintain those settings on each boot-up. I hope this clarifies this issue just a bit more.
Strangely enough, this can be caused by a bad IDE cable. The first thing I would try is replace it or you could even try swapping the cables between IDE0 where you hard drive and ZIP are and IDE1 where you CD and DVD are, see what effect that has.
Also check your CD and DVD. If they are jumpered for CS (Cable Select), change as follows:
Jumper your drives as Master and Slave (burner normally Master)
Connector 2 (closest to mother board) hooked to Slave drive
Connector 1 (furtherest from motherboard) hooked to Master drive
Boot to BIOS Setup and load defaults. Save changes then boot normally and see how the system behaves.
I haven't been able to respond b/c my computer has been down…. still is. [I'm at another computer now.] Here's what happens: (1) I boot up to the very first screen which lets me know the amount of RAM, etc, it is auto detecting my secondary Master and the statement … NOT DETECTED comes up, same on my secondary slave, then I get the Pri Master/Slave which is my hard drive and zip drive. Also on this screen I have the option to press F8 and it takes me to a screen that allows me to choose which device I want to boot up first .. floppy drive, hard drive, CD drive or zip drive. I have changed this from floppy drive to hard drive and now the numlock light comes on immediately. Should I change back to floppy drive? (2) then we leave the first screen and go to a second screen which is just some more information on BIOS stuff I guess, (3) the third screen is just blank or black. I computer light is on but nothing happening on the screen. This is the first time this has happened. I can still get into the BIOS. Should I change the current settings to the default settings as has been suggested but I'm not sure where to go in the BIOS. I have (1) LOAD FAIL-SAFE DEFAULTS YES OR NO; (2) LOAD OPTIMIZED DEFAULTS YES OR NO. Are those the areas that I should change? Not sure what to do. I'm paralyzed.
