my cd/dvd drive will not open or even show on my computer-it's as if it doesn't exist .the led light flashes red all the time ,i have tried restarting my computer a number of times but that didn't work .and i have used a pin the little hole to open it . im not sure exactly what caused it but after i left a vcd in my drive it just wouldn't open i only got the disc out by using the pin. i have a acer desktop computer and a working external hard drive (which originally came from my acer desktop) i thought maybe since i have been unable to find my cd-drive on my desktop maybe i can copy files from my external drive . but where and what do i search for. any help would be good.
"my cd/dvd drive will not open or even show on my computer-it's as if it doesn't exist" Sounds like it has died and that's why it won't show up. Replace it. "i have a acer desktop computer and a working external hard drive (which originally came from my acer desktop) i thought maybe since i have been unable to find my cd-drive on my desktop maybe i can copy files from my external drive . but where and what do i search for. any help would be good. " Please explain, as this doesn't make any sense (to me). What does a working external hard drive have to do with a dead optical drive? Copy files from where to where? What are you trying to do?
That drive sounds like it's got stuck in some half and half mode.. thinking there is still a disk in when there isn't. I have an old philips dvd burner that does the exact same thing on winduhz.. makes out it's in use. Linux on the other hand throws a much more helpful "device busy" error which I cure with hdparm -W /dev/hdx which resets it and it works fine till next reboot when we go through it all again. It's a proper hardware error.. I think a gate on one of the tray switches is malfunctioning or something like it...
