You're welcome.
Unfortunately I left out something important.
Older cables that don't have a nipple on the cd-rom's plug ...
You can look at the circuit board of the cd-rom to see if the connector's
#1 Pin is labeled or you can plug in the cable so that it's red stripe is
on the side closest to the cd-rom's power connector (works with most
cd-roms)


"Dana" <Dana@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:2D17FDBE-92D8-4D92-BACC-D9FB80329F70@microsoft.com...
> WOW!!!!!! I'm printing that out in case I decide to tackle this again!!
>
> Thanks so much!! That really answered a bunch of questions!
>
>
> "S. Taylor" wrote:
>
>> Cd-roms and dvd-roms do not require you install drivers if you're using
>> it
>> in windows 95 or newer
>>
>> You do need driver for it if you're booting into dos only and want access
>> to
>> it.
>> In this case you can have windows make a startup floppy disk for you, and
>> it
>> will
>> use generic drivers which should work fine.
>>
>> If after installing the cd-rom, if it's not listed in windows 98's My
>> Computer,
>> then check the hardware manager ( right click My Computer and choose
>> Properites, then
>> choose Hardware), Check for any entries that have a yellow ! or ? beside
>> it.
>> In the case of a cd-rom, the presences of a ! or ? by its entry would
>> indcate that
>> the drive is is dying, the ide cable it's using may need to be replaced,
>> or
>> windows is having
>> trouble assigning resources to it.
>>
>> If you find no entry for it, then check your bios, to see if it detects
>> it.
>> If it doesn't and your certain the drive itself is fine, then your ide
>> cable
>> is probably plugged in
>> backwards ( i kid you not ) or the cable has been damaged.
>> To verify this, take the cable out and look at it.
>>
>> If it's an older cable, it may only have 2 plugs on it,
>> the plugs will be rectangular with no outward notch (nipple)
>> and both plugs will be black.
>>
>> Some older cables have 1 plug thats has the notch ( or nipple ) and 1
>> without,
>> the end with the notch plugs into the motherboard, and it's notch lines
>> up
>> with a notch in the
>> motherboards ide plug, that insures that the #1 Connector on the cable
>> lines
>> up with the
>> #1 Pin on the board.
>>
>> If your cable looks like this or has developed 1 or more creases where
>> the
>> cable has twisted and
>> rotated to fit the available space, then time may have caused a break in
>> it
>> and you should
>> replace it. Newer cables are also capable of higher data transfere rates
>> so
>> replacing an older cable is still beneficial.
>>
>> Newer cables can have different colored plugs, and the plugs have outward
>> notches.
>> Some cd-rom cables have 3 plugs, the 2 plugs that are closest to each
>> other
>> are for cd-rom/dvd-rom drives (and should be black in color)
>> and the isolated plug must be plugged into the motherboard (may be black,
>> but in the case of multi-colored
>> cables, it will also be the one that is a different color)
>>
>> Look at the sides of the cable, you'll see that one side has a red stripe
>> running it's full length.
>> This stripe is used to indicate which invidual connector, in each plug,
>> is
>> the "#1 Connector".
>> The #1 Connector MUST be plugged into the "#1 Pin", for the motherboard
>> and
>> for the drive(s).
>>
>> To find the #1 Pin on an IDE connector, use a work light or flashlight
>> while
>> you're looking very very closely
>> at the area of the motherboard around the outside of the connector.
>> You're looking for the number 1 printed on the motherboard.
>> The shortside of the connector that is closest to the printed number, is
>> the
>> side of the connector that has the #1 Pin
>> and the cable should be plugged in so that it's red stripe lines up with
>> the
>> same side of the connector
>> that has the #1 Pin.
>> If your cable's plug has a nipple on it, the stripe should automatically
>> line up correctly,
>> otherwise, just use the red stripe and the location of the connector's #1
>> Pin as your guide.
>> Oh, and as a side note, the cd-rom should be plugged into the Secondary
>> IDE
>> Connector.
>>
>> If the cable has 3 plugs, use the one on the very end for the cd-rom,
>> this
>> will tell the bios to
>> treat it as the Secondary Master Device on that cable.
>> The middle plug should only be used for another cd-rom(or floppy
>> drives,in
>> the case of some old motherboards),
>> the bios treats devices connected to it as the Secondary Slave Device.
>> If you have a dvd-rom, also, then you may have trouble getting it or both
>> recognized if they are not setup right.
>> In my experience, the dvd-rom must be the Master and the cd-rom must be
>> the
>> Slave.
>> You may also have trouble if the drives are not configured correctly.
>> If you look at the end of the drive, where the cable connects, you'll see
>> a
>> small group of pins with a
>> black plastic clip covering 2 of the pins.
>> These pins tell the drive whether it should act like a Master or Slave
>> drive
>> or whether it should let
>> it's position on the cable determine that.
>> Read the drives label, it should have a schematic that shows you which
>> pins
>> should be covered by the
>> clip, to get it to behave in each of those 3 modes.
>>
>> Drives plugged into the end plug, must be setup as either Master or Cable
>> Select.
>> Drives plugged into the middle plug, must be setup as either Slave or
>> Cable
>> Select.
>> Some drives may be incapatable with your bios if set to one of those
>> settings, so you may have
>> to try different combinations Master,Slave or Cable Select, to get your
>> bios
>> to detect and recognize both drives.
>>
>> If you're only trying to use 1 cd-rom or dvd-rom, the above paragraphs
>> are
>> still valid.
>> You may still need to play with the drives setting (Master,Slave, Cable
>> Select), to get bios to
>> see it, just make sure that when trying the Master setting, that the
>> drive
>> is on the Master Plug
>> and then when trying the Slave setting that the drive is on the Slave
>> plug.
>>
>>
>> If after reading all that, your bios sees it and windows doesn't,
>> then boot into DOS with a windows 98 startup floppy, and try to use the
>> drive.
>> If you can't then consider replacing it.
>> If you can access it, then it's a windows 98 problem and you should post
>> your problem in a
>> windows 98 newsgroup
>>
>> G'Luck
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> "Dana" <Dana@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:E35497A9-0C5B-4825-A27A-F4FD53D0C161@microsoft.com...
>> >I think I know the answer - BUT my mom is trying to install a cd-rom
>> >drive
>> >in
>> > an old Windows 98 machine. We need a system disk with cd-rom support on
>> > it,
>> > right? Do we get that off the Win98 machine she's trying to fix and put
>> > it
>> > on
>> > a floppy? (It's for a friend of hers) - We CAN'T get it off her Windows
>> > XP
>> > machine, can we????
>> >
>> > ANY advice here? This all started because the friend's modem died and a
>> > new
>> > modem didn't work, so I gave her an old box I had sitting around - but
>> > the
>> > DVD-ROM drive didnt' work and she can't get signed up for her email!
>> > ARGHGHGHG!!! It's never-ending!! and my mother and I are about to come
>> > to
>> > blows, because she's in a different city and I'm doing this over the
>> > phone!!
>> > HAHA!!
>> >
>> > THANKS!!
>>
>>
>>