I've had a cdrw for quite sometime. It doesn't play dvds, nor can it burn them. I just recently bought a dvdburner. I installed it only to find the computer will only read the cdrw. I switched around the ide cables and now it only reads the dvd burner but not the cdrw. the thing is, on my computer it reads two drives, but when i put a disk inthe cdrw, it does nothing. It's powered, I just think there must be something i haven't done to allow them to simultaneously be read by the comp. Please help.

I'm also about to have dual hdd's runing. Just a fact, in case it affects the solution.

Check and see if both, the DVD and the CDRW, are set to master. One should be set to master (Secondary master in BIOS) and the other to slave (Secondary slave in BIOS).

It may be a problem is occuring running 2 optical drives off the same IDE cable Kal.
With respect to Acklan try it this way.
IDE 1
Primary master = C
Primary Slave = Cdrom

IDE 2
Secondary Master = Second hard drive
Secondary Slave = DVD Drive

Thanks a lot. I'll try them and get back to you.

Ok I went into Bios and there is only one diskdrive being read, the dvdrw. I'll try the reconfigured IDE cables later tonight and get back at you. Thanks again

Thanks Wolfeymole. When I reread it, it did seem sorta vage.

No problem Acklan
Let's hope Kal will get back to us.

I was going to do it tonight but had to use my comp. I probably will do it tommorrow. Now there won't be any chance that I'll have to reformat right? I've got a lot of stuff I can't loose on the hard drive i have running. I won't get the second hard drive running until i get my xp disc fixed, it's scratched up and won't read correctly.

If what I described, is your problem you should be up and runnig as soon as you plug your machine back in. Nothing you described indicates you need to format. I would call Microsoft and see if they will send you a replacement disk. My sister lost hers, and everything else she owned in the floods a few years ago in NC. You may have to send them the old disks. Is it OEM, Preloaded (Dell, HP, Compaq..), or retail edition?

Your confusing me a little here Kal.
Let me get this right ok, your running XP on the original drive you had in the pc yes?
You don't need to;"Get your XP disk fixed" to run the second drive.
Is this second hard drive virgin so to speak, bereft of any data, or does that too have an operating system on it?
If it has an OS then it's no big deal, you may find you have a dual booting system, just choose hdd 0.
If it doesn't then set the hdd jumper to Master on the second IDE, actually do that anyway.
Use the second hdd as a back up drive and somewhere to deposit all your other stuff.

Well, I opened it up to try and do what is recommended above. The IDE cables do not reach far enough. I plan on taking it to computer renaissance, they said they'd fix it for 25 bucks. If anyone has an alternative. Let me know.

If yo have a used computer store, you should be able to pick up a used cable for less than $10 (in truth less than $5). Did you try moving the drives into different bays to try and make it reach? It should only take a + head screw driver.