cd -rw drive disappeared (XP home SP1 all updates)

[jaystarter1]

I was given a cd with wedding photos but when inserted although green light flashed and drive whereed away no autoplay. tried to run from my computer/ cd -rw drive but no go and things locked up. Got out of that by using task manager and killing it there, then discovered I couldnt play any music cd or view any of my saved to cd photos from my own discs! went to system - hardware - device manager - the cd-rw drive didnt show anywhere. Rt click on disc drives and then scan for hardware changes and this somehow put things back to normal. So my question is - would this be a corrupt cd with the wedding photos, or something going wrong with the computer cd-rw drive (Samsung). Haven't been able to try the suspect cd on another machine but the person it belongs too says she can play it ok on her machine. grateful for any ideas.

[JoeP517]

Certainly any electronic equipment can go bad at any time. First, try shutting down the PC. Then open it up and check the cables. Next, when you start the PC check to see if the drive shows up in the BIOS.

Joe

[Bob Archell]

Hi Jeff,

Is it possible that the cd with wedding photos was created in a multi-session mode and not finalized? If not finalized, then there can be problems trying to read such a cd on another drive.

Cheers, Bob

[jaystarter1]

Thanks for responses, it appears the "rougue" cd was in fact just that, having probably been closed to be read by only 1 machine is my guess as it has the same effect on a couple of friends computers also! Doing a shut down and restart puts things back to normal, the wedding photos may have to wait for a while!