Recognising a second CD-Rom drive

[Julian]

I recently added an IDE-based Cd-rw in addition to my existing 32X. I connected on end of the data cable to my secondary IDE controller, with the second (of three)socket to my CD-rw. This seems to be correct-I'm no expert, but the thing is my OS(win98) does not detect it.

[welsh wizard]

check your jumper on drives one must be set as master and one as slave, this is a personal preference I prefer cd writer on different IDE controller port to standard CD Rom

[Julian]

actually that's exactly what I did, I set it to master on my secondary IDE controller, but the bit that puzzles me is why can't it be detected?

[drdeath]

make sure that the other cd drive is set to slave on the secondary controller then - also try flipping the ide cable the other way on the back of the new drive - its easy to get it flipped backwards...

[bdog]

Make sure that the secondary ide slave is set to auto detect in the bios.

[Julian]

Why should it be set to slave? My CD-RW has the secondary ide controller all to its self. Whereas for my primary controller which is shared by both my harddisk and the other CD-rom drive, I set the cd-rom to slave and the hard disk as master.

Err...bdog, how do I set it to autodetect in my bios? my Compaq system is a bit peculiar, as so can't really seem to access the bios setting, probably I might have to try some third-party program. Might anyone recommend such a utility?

[bdog]

I misunderstood you. It is better to have a cdr/rw on its own ide channel or at least as master. You must now go into bios and set secondary ide master to autodetect. There is no third party software that I know of that will do this, you just need to figure olut how to get into it on you compaq. I have never had a compaq, but usually a computer will flash "hit f1,del,etc to enter setup" while booting.

[Julian]

Bdog thanks man,actually I fixed the problem a day after you told me about the autodetect thing. But then I didn't post a reply since my ISP's proxy server was screwed by the taiwan earthquake