ATA DVD Drive not being detected

[syliam]

Hey,

So I have your generic ATA DVD Drive that hasn't worked for... a long time, I have the main end of the IDE cable plugged into the back of the drive, and the middle part plugged into my only ATA hard drives (I have two other hard drives which are SATA) could that be the problem? Should I try putting the middle part of the IDE cable into the DVD Drive?

Basically, it opens - so it's not a problem with power or anything, but it's just not being detected by the BIOS or Windows.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

P.S. I have no idea on the model, sorry.

 

[daft]

there are jumpers on older ATA drives, make sure that the jumper on the DVD drive is set to slave

 

[syliam]

Oh, jesus I feel like an idiot. I forgot they had jumpers. DUHRRR. I'll have a look in a second.

If I put it to slave, will I need to put the middle of the IDE cable to the DVD drive? or does it not matter?

Also trying a registry fix which has been getting alot of good feedback on a few sites.

 

[daft]

depends on the cable itelf, if it has master and slave labled on it, then you can put both drives to cable select and plug the HDD to the master. though, if im not mistaken the end of the cable is master and the middle is slave.

edit: a few pics from google images have confirmed this

 

[syliam]

Okay, turns out my DVD Drive doesn't actually have a place for jumpers. Just a molex bit, and an IDE bit, and two small sockets at the far side which I have no clue about. Definately nothing to put a jumper on though.

 

[daft]

hmmm. odd. does one of the sockets have a 3x2 pin configuration?

 

[syliam]

Nope, it doesn't have any pins on the drive at all!

 

[daft]

that is indeed, well, that would probably mean native cable select