Win7 DVD drive detection

My MB has only one IDE connection and all others are SATA. I have/had two IDE devices connected to the IDE port and they work without any problems. I wanted to add a second DVD drive. So what I did was get a IDE to SATA adapter to use with my IDE hard drive and then connect my two DVD drive through the IDE port. The adapter and drive picked up with no problems. As for the two DVD drive, they listed in BIOS but once I get to Windows they aren't shown in Windows Explorer and only seen in disk manager in the graphical view not in the volume list. I've check the connects, I've changed drive jumper from CS to master/slave, took the second drive I add off the ribbon, and put everything back to what it was before doing all of this. Even now with everything back to what it was as in drive connections, the DVD drive isn't being picked up. I've also uninstalled the drive in device manager and the restarted so it would be picked up and installed again. Windows picked it up and installed drivers and still nothing. At this point I can't think of anything else to do.

To really get things working properly you need to get a SATA hard drive, you'll really notice a speed increase too. IDE drives and ports are things of the past, they're really no longer valid even though some motherboard makers still put them on their boards.

I would go with SATA optical drives and SATA hard drives. You won't regret it. Those adapters are not really worth the trouble.

Well I guess my first question would be, why, if you had a SATA port available didn't you simply buy a SATA DVD drive rather than IDE? You could have saved money compared to buying the adapter for your Harddrive to make it go SATA.

But anyway ...

Normally the drives are pinned for cable select but you may have one pinned differently; check the settings and if one isn't cable select then fix it so it is. If they ARE already both cable select then try pinning the one you want first to Master and the other to slave. The pin settings and their meanings are printed on the unit itself, and vary from device to device. You typically need to pull the component from the desktop to read it.

Ok first off, I wouldn't have bought a SATA board if I didn't have SATA drives. I just wanted to use my IDE drives also and have been for at least the past 6 months since upgrading to Win7. I see no reason to upgrade to a SATA DVD when the one I have works.

Also, my post states that they did work until I tried to add a second optical IDE and use the adapter with my hard drive. The adapter works well but neither of the two opticals work. Now, the setup is back to what it was (hard drive and Optical) and the HD works but optical is not accessible through Windows. I also stated that I started with CS on the drives and then switched to master and slave without solving the problem.

Telling me to buy SATA doesn't solve the problem. I just don't like waste perfectly good components unless necessary which I know I will when I upgrade to a I core system.

So in the graphical view what happens when you select it and right-click? No option to assign it a drive letter?

It's probably because you're running both drives on the same ribbon cable with IDE to SATA adapters or dongles as they're commonly called.

The hard drive pin settings on whether they're MS or SL or CS probably isn't going to make any difference.

Do the drives show up in the Disk Management section of the Control Panel?

IF so, do they have the correct lettering assigned to them?

You stated it worked fine with one DVD drive and now you're having issues. I would take the other drive off and just use one.