CD-ROM drive on the fritz

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joni - 10 Aug 2003 04:36 GMT

The last time my Samsung Combo SM-304B DVD/CDR drive
worked, I was trying to burn an audio CD. When I tried to
close the session, it froze, and since then the drive has
not been able to read any discs. I simply get the error
message "E:\ is not accessible. The drive is not ready."
I've tried rebooting; nothing changes. When I put a disc
in the drive and try to scan it with Norton Antivirus, it
says "Unable to access Drive E:. The drive is locked by a
disc utility."

It's been 2 days and I've not been able to find any help
for this either on the Microsoft site or on the web. Any
ideas would be GREATLY appreciated!

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glee - 10 Aug 2003 18:04 GMT

With a disc in the drive, click Start> Programs> Accessories> MS-DOS Prompt.
Type the following, and press Enter:
UNLOCK E:
Close the DOS window.

If that does not help, reboot into Safe Mode*, right-click My Computer, click Properties on the menu that appears, then click the Device Manager tab.

Expand the CDROM category and remove all instances of your DVD/CDR, and if there are duplicates of your other CD drive, remove all instances of it also.
Click OK, and restart in normal mode Windows.
Check in device Manager to see that your drive or drives were re-detected and try again.

If still no joy, the drive may be bad.

* To boot to Safe Mode, start the computer and hold down the CTRL key till you see the Windows 98 Startup Menu (boot menu). Use the arrow keys to select Safe Mode, and press the Enter key.

...glen
--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP W95/98 Systems

> The last time my Samsung Combo SM-304B DVD/CDR drive
> worked, I was trying to burn an audio CD. When I tried to
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
> for this either on the Microsoft site or on the web. Any
> ideas would be GREATLY appreciated!

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