Strange DVD Drives Behavior

PJLLB said:

I have two DVD drives installed, one DVD-RW (drive D) and one DVD-ROM (drive E). When I insert a DVD into the RW drive D it cannot read the disk (I get prompted to insert a disk when I click on the drive in Explorer), but when I insert a CD (music or data) into it the CD reads fine. Conversely, when I insert a CD into the ROM drive the CD cannot be read (Windows says the disk is corrupt) but a DVD can be read and played. (Very occasionally, when I eject the DVD from the ROM drive the DVD title showing in Explorer continues to show the prior DVD title, and when I insert anything else I get an error.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what might be going on? Thanks in advance.

Are drives IDE or SATA?

PJLLB said:

They are both IDE-connected devices.

That's what i thought.
You better change the cables or at least disconnect them and spry some electric cleaning products.

PJLLB said:

I'm not sure why that would matter, but I'll give it a try and report back. Thanks.

They suffer of flimsiness, and because of the quantity of pins sometimes contact is not perfect, did you disconnect them lately?

IDEs have to be refreshed by unplugging/replugging/unplugging/replugging, in short, reseating, from time to time. Such is the nature of IDE and similar type connections.

RolandJS said:

IDEs have to be refreshed by unplugging/replugging/unplugging/replugging, in short, reseating, from time to time. Such is the nature of IDE and similar type connections.

That is why you better change cables, and that is why I prefer SATA drives.

PJLLB said:

I reseated the IDE cable from the single IDE controller port, and reseated each of the drive connector cables. The DVD-RW drive now works correctly; the DVD-ROM is still flakey. It read the DVD and CD, but when I ejected the DVD it continues to think the movie DVD is still in the drive.
These two drives go back to previous PC I built (which is why they are IDE drives) and evolved to the current PC configuration. I bit the bullet and just ordered a new SATA Blu-ray RW drive to replace both.

Good idea, I'm glad you solved your problem