Noob Problem.. installing DVD Writer

Hi guys,

I don't know about hardware and brought a Samsung DVD Writer which came with a installation CD with Nero 6 etc. I originally had a CD/DVD player and a CD writer.

He told me to unplug the leads to the CD writer and connect them to the DVD writer, basically just swap them.

When I boot my PC, and open My Computer all the disk drives are missing. It only shows icons for floppy disk (A: ) and the Local disk (C: ).

I think I screwed everthing up a week ago by changing the settings in bios? The primary master drive is my HD, could that be the problem???

I looked at the Device Manager and the old PIONEER CD/DVD player (which I didn't unplug) says Device Status - device cannot start (code 10)

Any advice would be appreciated here.

Shutdown and disconnect power.

Unplug the CD writer.

Set the jumper of the DVD burner to Master.

Connect it to the end connector on the Secondary IDE cable (all by itself).

Reconnect power and restart.

You don't need a CD burner. The DVD burner will burn CDs.



If you really feel that you need 2 optical drives then connect the DVD reader as Secondary Slave. Although that's not really needed as your new burner can read CDs and DVDs.

Most Burners arrive with the jumper (in the back, a little square plastic thing that shorts two pins) in the master position. Mastered drives must always be mounted by the terminating end connection of the IDE ribbon and slaves go to the middle connector. If you connected your new drive to the middle connector because there was already a drive on the end connector you probably have two masters and their conflicting. Remove your new drive. Look on top or back by the pins for a legend to show you where to put the jumper for slave, slave it and put it back in, and both drives should work fine. Remember, with IDE ribbon drives, both hard and rom, mastered drive goes on the end and slave in the middle.

Some common markings in the back might be:
Master M MS MA
Slave S SL
Cable Select CS

Cable select was developed as a jumperless way to mount drives, as long as both drives are set to CS their position on the ribbon will determine their status, end master - middle slave. The problem is, the motherboard must support it, and I had so many problems with Cable Select when I first tried it I stopped using it and just went back to master slave. It took me weeks to figure out it was CS that was causing my problems and I was so mad I never used it again. Its great if you have two identical drives and a modern motherboard, thats about 5% of the PC's out there. It just doesn't make sense.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Appzalien

Most Burners arrive with the jumper (in the back, a little square plastic thing that shorts two pins) in the master position.

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No, they don't.
Most (in fact, all that I recall recently) come jumpered for "cable select".
In addition, all of the IDE devices (optical and HDD) in the Dells, Gateways, eMachines, etc. are usually set as CS as well...maybe it makes assembly easier- don't have to pay attention to placement that way.