Hi! I am having problems with my optical drives, for no apparent reason they have changed letters, E as D and D as E making it impossible for me to transfer any data. I can play discs but not in the drive I put them in. I was told my drives may be corrupt, any ideas, thanks, Bertieboy

It is not likely both your drives are corrupt. One may be failing, or have a loose cable connection.

Have you been swapping cables? Changed hardware? Changed hard drives?

Note that you can go into Disk Management - Contol Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management. Then on the left, under Storage, highlight Disk Management.

Then, on the right, you should see all your drives. You can right-click on your opticals and select Change Drive Letter and Paths to change your letters to the necessary drive letter. You cannot have two drives with the same letter so, since you are swapping letters, you may have to temporarily assign one drive a third letter.

Why did this change? One reason could be your original D: failed to be recognized during a reboot, and so the second optical drive took that letter assignment. Then, for what ever reason, on a later reboot, the initial drive was seen again, but as a new drive, and assigned the next letter in line.

Note - For years, I have always assigned Q: to my CD drives on all my new builds. In this way, I can add and remove harddrives without worrying about the drive letters shifting on me. When DVDs came out, I started lettering them V:. I never have a problem with letters moving on me.

Thanks Digerati Will try, will let you know how it goes, thanks.

Hello, I changed the letters over and it still didn't work, that might have been my fault, at one time I could not open my D drive. I don't know whether cleaning the drives made any difference but now I can transfere data if I use my E drive as my CD ROM and my D drive as my re-writer although my E drive is my re-writer, it seems odd but it works. Do you think it was cleaning the lenses that might have solved the problem? Should I change the drive letters back or leave well alone? I hope you understand what what I am saying, thanks for taking the time to help me, Bert

Well, it would bother me if they were all mixed up, but I don't think it can hurt anything by leaving it.

If you want to try and fix it for good, I would start over. I am also assuming these are IDE drives. If me, I would physically remove the drives and inspect the MS/SL/CS jumpers on the back and make sure all drives are set to CS (cable select), or all drives are set to the correct MS (master)/SL (slave) setting. (I prefer using master/slave and not CS - and never mix MS/SL and CS on same cable). Then I would make sure I have all drives (including HDs) attached to the proper connector on the cable(s). With a single HD, I would have the HD as Master on IDE1 and the CD as Slave on IDE1. Then I would have the DVD as Master on IDE2.

If they are SATA opticals, nevermind!

Thank you very much for your help. Building computers is one thing, trouble shooting is another and I am not very good at it, thanks again, Bert.

Building computers is one thing, trouble shooting is another

It is actually refreshing to hear you say that. I wish others would wake up and realize (or finally admit) how true that is. There are so many that call themselves "technicians" simply because they have assembled a few parts in to a computer case. They so often give real technicians, those that have been to technical schools and had formal training, a bad name. That's not to say all "assemblers" are unqualified - on the contrary, some have years of "real-world" experience that more than make up for formal "in theory" education. But those few bad apples....

and I am not very good at it

Well, I've been at this for over 3 decades and there is always something new to learn. Not to mention, much of electronics seems to happen by pure FM - and that's not frequency modulation, but rather a specific type of magic! And of course, troubleshooting without the system on the bench in front of us so we can touch and feel is not always easy or straight forward either.

In any event, for most people, computers are simply a communications device, a household appliance, a work tool, something to make their lives easier and/or more productive - it is just expected to work. And in most cases, that's how it is, and that's how it should be. And when they break, they call someone to fix it.