PC Drive Problem

[gtskater]

I've got one hard drive which is split into two partitions, one for windows and programs, the other for media. I also have one regular CD drive, and then a combi DVD/CD-RW drive.

I've had everything work perfectly before, however now i can only use the second DVD/CD-RW drive to write CD's. I can't read CD's or DVD's.

The problem cropped up when I went back home and used a crossover cable with the PC at home.

I thought it might be something to do with this (that i found in the Windows troubleshooter):

Are you trying to use more than four IDE or ESDI devices?
By default, PC computers can directly recognize only four IDE or ESDI devices. (Two devices can be added per disk controller, for a total of four devices.)

If you are using more than four IDE/ESDI devices, you need to remove the additional devices from your computer.

Do you have more than four IDE or ESDI devices?

This looks just like the kind of problem that is most likely, however, back at Uni i have no other drives connected to my PC. No network drives, only a Floppy disk drive which was there before when everything worked fine. I've tried disconnecting the Network connection and running the machine with no external connection to no avail.

Has anyone got any ideas?

[Charlie Footstool]

During the POST (when you first start the machine and it checks the memory and cpu, etc) are all your drives detected?

[gtskater]

yup, it all looks fine, thats kinda why i'm on here i suppose. I really, really can't figure out whats wrong with it.

[Super Stu]

Hang on now. Are you saying your combi drive no longer reads CDs or DVDs, but will write CDR/Ws?

I can't see how faffing about with a network will have any bearing on hardware like that. I certainly haven't encountered it before.

Be worth trying the drive on another PC though, if you can.

[gtskater]

I didn't think messing around with network stuff would make all that much difference either but i was told by quite a reliable source that Windows can have difficulty with it (for who knows what reason). Sounded odd to me but i was clutching at straws so it was something.

It also related to how everything worked fine before i used the crossover cable and shared an Internet Connection with another PC.