Let's say, for example, we have 27 drives connected to a computer via USB, or a network, or whatever. The floppy is A: and/or B:, the HD is C:, the CD ROM is D:, etc, all the way up to Z:. Now, what...

I found a multi-format drive for laptops:
NEC ND-5500A

Does anyone make a multiformat DVD drive ( DVD+/-R, +/-RW) for laptops?
The ones that I have seen are mostly only for -R/RW media. I am looking for an internal drive as opposed the the external...

Maybe you have dust on the optics of the drive. A blast of compressed air may be the solution to your problem. If not, there are many brands of drives available that will suit your needs.

>>and i found a raptor 10,000 rpm scsi hard drive<<
He stated in his post that it was a scsi drive,so I replied based on that info.

You will need a scsi interface card for your mb.
Adaptec and others have such an interface card that will suit your needs.

Maybe your version of ecdc does not support DVDs if you have 5, then you need 6
look here:
http://www.roxio.com/en/products/ecdc/why_upgrade.jhtml;jsessionid=GN40DH3S11LU5LAQAMHCM4VMCACAYIV0

DVD REGION KILLER would have allowed you to view all of the various region DVDs without you having to reflash your drive.
http://www.softpedia.com/public/cat/3/7/3-7-18.shtml

Who is the mfr. of the replacement drive? Could it be that if the drive is not Toshiba, the bios reports an error?

Are you using the correct type of media for the drive? For example, are you trying to use DVD+R media whilst the drive only accepts DVD-R media?

So now the computer is at least booting up with the drive connected? The CD being in the drive would make no difference. The fact that the computer acts as if there is no HD means that the jumpers on...

If you are comfortable working around this type of stuff, see if the spindle and stepper motors are turning freely and not binding.

It appears that there is a short on the PCB somewhere. If you have a variable DC power supply, you could inject the 12 or 5 v to the appropriate pins and see which one is giving the trouble, and then...

Connect just the power cable to the drive, and not the IDE cable, and see if the computer boots. If not, then there is a short on either the +5v or the +12v lines in the drive. The computer power...

Maybe you did not 'close' the DVD after you were finished making it?
DVD-Rs play fine in my Dell laptop. I don't know what kind of Dell you have, but I have an old Powerspec with a DVD drive, that I...

REM those statements out because the computer is still looking for the old Matsushita drive that used to be there. WIN will find the new drive fine without those statements.

REM out all references to the CD ROM drive in config.sys and autoexec.bat, and try rebooting

If you are able to locate another identical drive (ebay maybe?) that is operational, you can try to swap the electronics from the good one over to the bad one amd see if you can get it to work so...