OK, so heres the deal. Let me explain here, so that this doesnt sound like more of a PC Technical issue then XBOX-Scene material. I am installing a Sony DVD-ROM into my PC, because I have a DVD RW Drive in the PC all ready. Im trying to add the DVD-ROM so that I can back-up my game Back-ups, by using the Burning on the Fly method.

Im running off of Windows XP, and meet all of the normal system requirements, just to get that out of the way.

DVD RW Drive was originally Drive E when you look in "My Computer"
The Old (now removed) DVD-ROM Drive was Drive F

When I took out the old DVD-ROM and put in the New one, it automatically took over the Drive E position, and the DVD RW Drive was not opperational. Nor was there even a Drive F spot available in "My Computer"

I turned the PC power off and Disconnected the DVD RW and turned the power back on, let the system boot up, turned the Power Off, Plugged back in the DVD RW, turned the System back on, Now the PC recognizes the DVD RW as the E drive in "My Computer"

So now that is where I am at an I have this problem: The new DVD-ROM opens and Closes, but does not appear anywhere. "My Computer" still has the DVD RW as Drive E, but there is no Drive F at all. DVD-ROM cannont be located in Device Manager, or Add Hardware Wizard. Its like it isnt even there, even though it will open and close, but will not play any disc.

Well, thats it. There is my problem. If any one can help me out, Id greatly appreciate it. Ill be online all night checking up on this post, so if you can...Please help me out, so that I can get back to BACKING-UP.

Are the drives on the same ide channel?If they are then go into device manager and uninstall that ide channel then reboot and see if it recognizes both drives. One more thing are you using nforce drivers? If so remove the ide drivers and let windows install the generic ones.

Did you set the jumpers correctly on these 2 dvd drives ?

suggest

Primary ide master = c: drive - your h/d of course
Primary ide slave = sony dvd rom reader

Second ide master = dvd writer
Second ide slave = another h/d or an old cd writer if ya don't wanna knacker ya dvd burner doing cdr's

you say the dvd's go from drive letter E & hopefully F so presume you got a h/d D drive either on the main h/d partioned as C & D or a 2nd h/d in there....

if you got a 2nd h/d you may need to check the jumper on that and set it to either master/stand alone, slave if going on the 2nd ide channel as slave or cable select like in xbox
The h/d jumpers are sometimes a pain coz some drives will happily run on c/s others will run on master only - it varies from one pc & drive make to another

But I would take a good guess your jumper setting need sorting out on the back of the drives - as PC boots it should scan in POST - Power On Self Test showing both dvd drives....

If it don't go into your PC's bios and set the ide config to AUTO DETECT on all 4 ide devices

Before you do anything else...

Go into Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Computer Management/Disk Management and see if your CD/DVD's appear at the bottom.

If so you merely may need to move their drive assignment letters around as frequently happens under XP.

So Far Ive tried everyones suggestion, and I thank you. But It seems that PIZZA PIZZ appears to be on the right track. The only problem is that Im not a PC Tech, and I really dont know how to change the Master Slave set up. I understand that there is a Jumper Cable that can be used, but I know that I didnt have one before I started this whole thing. When I started I had DVD RW and the DVD-ROM both running off of the Same IDE Cable. Now it just doesnt seem to work.

As far as there being an F drive... yes this is because the HD is Partitioned.
Hard Drive= C drive and D drive
DVD RW= E drive
DVD-ROM= (supposed to be) F drive, but not showing up at all

I have been looking online and it seems to me that they are both in the master postion.(Maybe not Master, but Same the Same Position,however) How can I change this with out buying anything else, if possible.

One More thing that Ive just tried. I took out the DVDRW Drive and turned on the PC with just the DVD-ROM Drive in, and it made DVD-ROM = Drive E, and the DVDRW is not anywhere. Turned off PC, and plugged in the DVDRW and DVDRW still does not appear in "My Computer" either. When Im in "My Computer" and I right click the E Drive, and click the Eject Option, both Drives open. DVDRW will not read at this Point but I can Switch between the DVDRW and the DVDROM, but the unplugging and installing process, but no matter what, I can only get 1 of the 2 drives to work at once. I hope this helps some one to solve this. I really do think it has some thing to do with both devices being on the same IDE Channel, or the whole Slave/Master/ CS thing. If anyone could tell me how to change this, that would be great. I really want to get back to Backing My Games.

Each "device" (drive or DVD/CD) has a set of pins on the back that accept little plastic shorting devices called "Berg Jumpers".

The legend printed on the DVD or HARD DISK will indicate which way the drives must me jumpered to be either MASTER or SLAVE.

If there is only ONE device on a cable, be it a Hard Disk or DVD/CD then it must NOT have a jumper on either the MASTER OR SLAVE position.

If there are TWO devices connected to one cable (not including the connection to the motherboard itself) then ONE device must be set to MASTER (usually the middle set of pins) and th other device must be set to slave.

Typically you'll see a set of double pins which looks something like this


[:::::]


For "MASTER" you would jumper the MIDDLE set like this
[::!:!::]

Connecting the top pin to the bottom of the middle set of two.

For slave you would connect the other device like this

[:::!:!:]

Where the jumper is closest to the larger POWER connector (the one with the Black, Red & Yellow cables) on the device.

It seems that you have two devices set identically, which is what is causing problems.

Also the cable to the drives should appear to be "straight" with no twists of the strands at any point, whereas a FLOPPY cable purposely reverses a few lines midway on the cable. That is how you can tell them apart easily.

Also remember that the drive may not immediately appear even when properly jumpered due to your having other extra partitions on your hard drive.

You MUST look in the Disk Management part of the Computer Manager to see if the drive appears after making any changes.

ok, on the back of your DVD-RW and DVD Rom, you have an area that has a jumper on it (at least it should have one). It will look something similar to this:



that is the back of a hard drive, but the back of a DVD-RW/DVD Rom is similar....what you're looking for is the area where you see the little white thing in the picture.....that is a jumper.

you need to find out how to set your DVD-Rom to slave and your DVD-RW to master, by moving the jumper to the correct pins.....i'm gonna say that your DVD-RW is already set to master, and it's the DVD-Rom that needs switched, but check the manual for each drive, or go the the manufacturers website to find out where the jumpers need to be put......just make sure you have the DVD-RW as the "master" and the DVD rom as the "slave" on the same IDE cable.......CD-RW's and DVD-RW's don't like to be "slaves", and it can cause many problems....they can be on the same IDE cable (that's how i have mine set-up) which makes it much easier for routing the IDE cables....some people say you get better perfomance if you put them on seperate IDE's, but i tried it and didn't notice a difference.

the reason that you can't get both to show up at the same time is because they're both set to "master", and the pc is just showing whichever one is initializing first.

You guys are all Absolutely AWSOME!!!! Eveything works perfectly fine now. Thanks.
I am able to Back up Games using the Burn on the Fly method. You were all a great help. Thanks.

Soz I wasn't about to answer ya pm

You got there in the end - well done. That is the hardware bit hopefully sorted for good.

Only other problem you "may" get if xp starts messing about a bit with the dma settings.
If this happens a dvd will take much longer to burn - up to a full hour for a single dvd

If this happens - well you can check all your ide devices are using UDMA

Device manager - ide/atapi controllers - look on the primary & secondary ide controller in the advance settings bit

It should say Use udma if available on both devices on the 2 ide channels & be using UDMA.

If the current mode it is using is PIO then your ide speeds is really slow, on the odd occasion xp alters this and peeps notice burn times go from 15min to an hour ?

If so check the advance settings etc.....

it should be now easily possible to burn 2x on the fly or 4x/8x from an image on ya h/d

You may be able to burn 4x on the fly if your dvd-rom reader is really good n fast and the disc is quite good condition, I tend to stick to 2x on the fly

well done anyway