I just got a new 60gb drive to use as storage. So together I have a 40gb boot drive and 60gb storage. As it is I have them both on the same ultra ata cable with jumpers set to cable select. It works. The problem is that the DVD drive, set up with its own ultra ata cable going to the secondary slot on the motherboard with jumpers set to master - is not being recognized. It doesn't show up in the bios or anywhere else. Any ideas? BTW: It's a LiteOn DVD drive which I used before with the 40gb drive on one ATA cable.

hello is your seconed ide chanel enabled in bios? since the first two ide devices are cable select try it in the dvd

Yeah, both channels are enabled. I tested it out further by swapping the cables so that both hd's are on the secondary slot and the dvd is on the primary. The result was still, no dvd being recognized but the hd's were. The dvd acts normal and worked just yesterday, lights and spins up like normal, just no communication with the motherboard.

Try checking the IDE connection pins to be sure none are bent or broken, or maybe try a different (known working) IDE cable. You could also try another CD or DVD drive on the same cable to narrow it down to your DVD. HTH

Mr Secret's advice is good. Particularly about trying another known good ide cable. Make sure you have tested both its sockets. Also double check it is enabled in the bios, as sometimes there are two (repeat two) bios parameters that have to be set. I note you reversed the connections with the same result. Is it possible the dvd ide cable is (or has been) reversed at some stage. If so, if the ide cable connector has one hole blocked you will now have bent connector, but it is unlikely to have damaged anything further. Do any leds on the dvd function? With Windows ME, do you have to add/remove hardware. If so, with the dvd disconnected, I would remove it from W ME, then re-connect it and add it back to W ME. Good luck - keep us posted.