I have had a problem lately w/ Windows recognizing my cd-roms. One day they were just gone from My Computer... Ive tried everything to fix this, so I have decided to just reinstall XP (again). I took a cd rom out of my older computer to try it out, and it did work, but before I got around to reinstalling it disappeared on me again. My question is, HOW (or can I) reinstall Win XP w/out access to my cd roms? Do you think I could install MS-DOS & could I use them from there? Any help is appreciated!!!

Are the CD,s showing up in the BIOS on bootup? If not, open the BIOS and set all drives to auto-detect. Rgds.

You might wabt to check this bulletin before you reinstall. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];320553

I reinstalled last night :) Thank goodness I have an extra hard drive, hehe. I used my 'last' cd rom (from my older computer) and my computer recognized it, so I figured I better do this now because it could just disappear like the others. When this whole missing cd rom thing started, my burner had a steady orange/red light lit on it, then my cd roms dissapeared one by one. They were not listed in my BIOS, or anywhere else for that matter. It was like they never existed on here... But anyway, my burner still does not work. It won't open, nor does it show up in Windows. Can they just die like this?? I tried deleting those things in my registry before, it did not work though. After I did that, my computer lagged for at least 5 minutes on the Compaq screen (the first thing I come to when I boot). Unplugging the cd roms fixed that, so I don't know what could be wrong here. I just hope everything is OK now & lasts...