Computer will not recognize cd drive?

Its a combination of 3 things,,

first ,, your jumper must be set, set to master, since it has a cdrw as well as a dvd rom,, make sure the ribbon you have for the cd rom is put in the proper ide slot on the board, it will say either secondary ide or ide 2 depending on the motherboard manufacture,, all hard drives are part of the primary ide or ide 1 and their ribbon will be connected there,,

you may have a bad ide ribbon,, or sata,, you didnt disclose which type it is,, if its old i doubt its sata,, so youll need to replace the ribbon,, be careful on some ide ribbons,, they have the red line which signifies the pin 1 on the left and some are on the right,, always make sure when hooking it into an ide rom drive that the red line for pin one is always on the right,,,closest to the power connector,, if you have a ribbon with it on the left flip it around,, you may have to reset your jumpers if you have multiple drives,, if not its easy for one, if you do that and it doesnt read try another ribbon and/ or another drive as well

also go into the bios,,, and enter the advanced setup,, check the ide configurations,, each drive will be listed,, (THIS IS NOT SETTING THE BOOT ORDER THIS IS DIFFERENT) , it will read each one,, you may need to do an auto search if available,, set the drive to auto,, then go to your main bios screen and see if it shows up,, also, you can do this in the main screen as well and set secondary master to auto,,

some bios have an auto detect hd drive feature,, that will find both hddrives and optical(rom) drives,,,

if not like i said,, if its not being recognized in the ide configuration option in your bios after you have done all that,, you may have a bad drive,,

if all succeeds , then go to boot order set your dvd/cdrw combo drive as first boot device, hddrive as second, press f10 to save configuration change and choose yes,, let it restart and if is asks to press any button to boot from cd,, do so,, sometimes it auto boots,,sometimes you have to hit a key,,

then follow directions,,

good luck,,,

also

You need to set the BIOS boot order to boot from CD first.

Make sure the OS install CD is in the drive.

Do a hard shut down. (Turn the computer off or unplug it if you have to).

Boot into the bios setup.

It varies by machine, there's usually a splash screen right when you turn it on that says press some key for setup. You can check the manufacturer's Web site. Usually F1, F2, del, or esc.

Change the boot order to CD first.

Save changes and exit.

Now you boot from CD without loading anything from the hard drive.

Format the hard drive.

Install the OS.

Reboot into BIOS and change back to boot from HDD first.

Here's a link that helps you find the right key to press to get into the bios setup:

http://aroundcny.com/technofile/texts/tec020203.ht...

Check the jumper on the back of the drive to make sure that it is set to CS (Cable Select).

Also, check to see if there are any lights on the drive when you press the button. You can open the drive by pushing a paperclip into the tiny hole and then try it again.

All in all, you may just have to replace the drive. You can find these cheap right now. Newegg has DVDR/CDR's for 20.00 or so.

double check all your cables from power connector to your ide connector/sata connector they might be loose. You can also check your jumper settings so i'm not sure how you have your computer setup assuming that you are using ide. Make your cd drive secondary master. So there chance your drive to master rather then cable select or slave. Go from there is that still doesn't work set it for slave 2nd to your hard drive. You might have a faulty IDE connector on your motherboard very common.

hope that helps

you're saying you basically upgraded to XP. are not you approximately 8 years previous due? besides examine the BIOS first. next boot off the homestead windows CD to confirm if it sees thecontinual. If it does see it then you definately are having difficulty with the ATAPI drivers in homestead windows. this would get complicated from right here so investigate the fundamentals first.

You might need to set the jumper on the drive you just stuck in it to the same setting as the old one.

(Or go into BIOS and set it to recognize it)

Here is a pretty smart cd ripper with fast speed and high output quality, it can rip cd to any audio formats, take a look and free try it urself:

http://www.avi-mp4-converter.com/nevo-cd-ripper-20...

It supports audio CD to mp3, wav, wma, ogg, drive support IDE/SCSI/USB/IEE1394 buses. Easy-to-use and fast.

If it is made by TSST Get a different drive. Like Installing iWork on Windows