To say that this drive is a moldy-oldie is putting it mildly. There are two likely possibilities: dirty optics, or disk compatibility problems. Newer blank CD-Rs have a different dye composition...

No driver is needed. As far as I know, no Windows XP driver is even available. A CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive is automatically recognized by the system as an ATAPI device. It's the programs recognizing...

Have you tried putting the ST drive as the master on the secondary IDE channel?

As recent as your motherboard is, I doubt that a size limit is your problem; the limit is probably 137 GB under XP. In fact, your dynamic drive overlay may be part of your problem. If the drive is...

Why, exactly, do you want DOS access if you have XP already? In my case, it's because I have a triple-boot system: Windows XP, Win98SE, and Linux. FAT 32 is trivially readable by all three.

It...

Within a drive, the actual physical mechanism differs from Rs to RWs. You might try a CD-Cleaner disc (with little brushes on it). You may even find one at a dollar store! I see them there all the...

The floppy drive controller is integral to the motherboard. If it's a hardware problem, it's probably gonna be a replacement motherboard needed, unless you can find an ISA-slot floppy controller...

When naming a thread, please try to use a name that's more descriptive. I see what happened, but please be more careful next time.

I agree that it's a driver issue. A CD came with the card. ...

Some PCs of that vintage will not recognize a hard drive bigger than 8.4 GB, or will only recognize 8.4 GB of a larger drive due to BIOS limitations.

Make sure that your second drive's jumper(s)...

If it is FAT32, Windows 98 will see the contents, no problem -- unless it's too high a capacity for your BIOS. Most 1999-and-earlier PCs had a 32 GB capacity limit. Can you give us the brand and...

I'm sure that was because that particuular copy of Nero was an OEM version keyed to a CD drive other than your Yamaha. It's a form of copy protection. The demo version does not have that...

What burning software are you using? Did it work and stop, or has it never worked? You can download a trial version of Nero Burning ROM (http://www.nero.com) and give that a try. If you already...

I can virtually guarantee that you will not find a slot-loading CD-burner due to alignment issues. It's one thing to put a disc on a tray and let the mechanism load it. It's another thing entirely...

Try this (http://www.google.com/search?q=cd-rom+%22slot+loading%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&start=10&sa=N) search, for starters.

Prassi Primo CD Plus is now RecordNow. Earlier versions are no longer supported (no updates for years) and don't work under WinNT.

They will always show "full" from Windows98/Me. In order to see their true state you must examine them from within your CD-burning software. What SW are you using?

A DVD-burner is backwards-compatible with the earlier formats, but watch out as there is more than one DVD-writable standard. What you want is a drive that is both DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW compatible...

You might also try this: Data Recovery Software Tools (http://www.ntfs.com/products.htm). It's a useful site for information, as well.

This is a known problem with pre-2000-vintage BIOSes. They cannot recognize hard drives larger than 32 GB -- but all is not lost. 40 GB drives, Maxtor included, can be strapped via jumpers to 32...

Does it detect the NEC drive at all? What does the Device Manager say? If the drive is new, please make sure that your Master/Slave Jumpers* are set correctly. If both are set to master, it will...

Thanks for letting us know what fixed your problem!

At 50x read speed, a CD can spin at well over 10,000 RPM, something it was never designed to do originally. Older or cheaply-made CDs are often not made as precisely as newer discs, so they can be...

This is the first time I have had a chance to reply. Possible causes:

Software -- under what circumstances does this happen? Are you on the internet, is there a particular program running, does...

A good point has been raised: what is the brand/model of the motherboard?

I still strongly doubt a suitable BIOS upgrade is available, due to age.

Your machine is likely of an age that a 40 GB hard drive will not work as shipped. Most motherboard BIOSes of that vintage have a 32 GB limit, and few to none can be updated for this.

You have...

Look at the Toshiba user manual. Some laptops do not have a provision for changing the hard drive type or capacity. Check the BIOS and see if there is a drive selection page.

You should be able...

Are you having a problem with DVD region encoding? Which DVDs are/are not playing? Which player software are you using? Some DVD-ROM drives have hard-wired region coding, but sometimes their...

You will get more advantage spending the price differential between serial and parallel ATA on a better sound or graphics card. Those aspects are much more important to the gaming experience than...

Did you properly reset your BIOS after flashing--that is, move the CMOS-reset jumper to ensure that the CMOS chip was completely discharged and the settings reset? I can't think of anything else...

Your BIOS does not support drives above 32 GB, possibly even an 8 GB limit (less likely). It likely will not recognize such large drives in their default configuration, even if you use utilities...

Make sure that DMA is turned on for the drive. It is not turned on by default under Win98, for example--this will cause no end of problems. Let us know which version of the operating system you are...

I answered that question already--in detail--in an earlier post. Check it out (end of page 1).

There's no useful info on the eMachines site, but I got this from the Maxtor site: https://maxtor.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/maxtor.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=960

I hope this helps.

Yes, but make sure that the BIOS will support a 160 GB drive. Until very recently, 137 GB was the limit. Check your manufacturer's website to confirm compatibility.

There's a lot of information missing here. What is the capacity of the new drive? Which operating system is being used? Which version? How old is the motherboard? All these factors directly...

Remove the reference to MSCDEX and the CD-ROM driver in both Config.SYS and AutoExec.BAT -- you never needed them under Win98 anyway.