I keep loosing my drivers for CD-ROM/RW and hard drive

[slaphappy]

I keep loosing my drivers for CD-ROM/RW and hard drive yet everything else is working just fine…printers, monitors, internet, etc…I just can’t access CD drives ??

System: yaya…it’s a bit dated - 2yrs old
Asus av7133 with AMD 800mhz cpu
Windows 98SE
40 gig HD IDE controllers
aopen 12X10X32
creative labs X24


DEVICE MANAGER TELLS ME:

No CD-ROM/RW are listed at all.
All my hard drives [partitioned 40 gig, C,D,E,F] and my floppy are “using MS-DOS compatibility mode file” (code 10)

REINSTALLING WINDOWS TELLS ME:

First, I can’t install windows from CD as I have no functioning CD-ROM/RW so I tried reinstall windows from my back up drive’s E & F. Upon opening Windows 98 Installation Setup from the drives E: or F:, results in “setup could not check the hard drives on your computer…you must check your hard drives ….and to run scandisk DOS mode”. Running scandisk from DOS mode results in the following:

C:\ AVINIT.EXE (This line is new, as it didn’t occur until seccond time the problem arose)
Sector not found reading C:
Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail?
Press ignore…..DOS Shell Scan Disk pops up
… “Scandisk cannot read last cluster on C….drive C may need Logical Block Addressing (LBG) or is not configured..” - yet the system has been working for as a partitioned drive for about 2 years??

SO WHAT HAVE I DONE:
Reinstalled dirvers.
Bios registers drives
Replace config and auto files…but that made things worse….
Did a SyS C from boot disk…nothing happened...?
I reinstalled windows from a GHOST CD (original computer setup)…everything worked fine for about 2 days, now I’m back to no drivers for my CD-ROM/RW and hard drive.
Through NORTON’s 2003 I have used virus scan, diskdoctor, scandisk, etc…and it fixed any found problems…which were minor.
I installed a piece of software called “Active SMART” to find and fix errors on hard drive…but it can’t locate the hard drive either??

The weird thing is that everything else works fine.
I’m starting to think drive C: is damaged, particularly a cluster at the end of the hard drive.

So I guess my next step is to FORMAT C:\

Will this fix the bad cluster? Is my hard drive dying? Do I need a new hard drive or is something else going on??

Oh ya…I can fuddle my way around a computer given a good set of directions/book…but I’m certainly not a computer genius…1 out of 10 here….lol…so the simpler the terms the better.

Thanks for the input!!!!

[sixf00t4]

i dont think it is a software issue or driver issue. i think it is a hardware problem. check your IDE cables, and jumpers. and even the power connectors, try and switch them around too.

[slaphappy]

Eliminated IDE cables, jumpers and motherboard controller...as i removed the 40 GIG hard drive and installed an old 4 GIG hard drive. The device manager reconizes that the 4 GIG hard drive, floppy, CD ROM/RW are working properly....no issues.

I reinstalled the 40 GIG hard drive, with a new IDE Cable, pins look good. Thus, eliminating some hardware issure/potentials.

The lack of drivers still unresolved on the 40 GIG HD. So, the problem is related to either the hard drive or the OS.

I've tried windows updates and changing BIOS settings to Auto...and various configurations....no luck so far....=(

I'm thinking of trying a hard drive Diagnostic Tool utility by manufacturer...as follows;

"The PowerMax utility is designed to perform diagnostic read/write verifications on Maxtor and Quantum hard drives. These tests will determine hard drive integrity. The PowerMax utility is effective on all ATA (IDE) hard drives with a capacity greater than or equal to 500 MB. Maxtor recommends the use of this utility for troubleshooting potential hard drive problems"

Ya think i should??

Cheers!