Hi there, Hoping for some pointers from some kind people. I have a standard Pioneer DVD RW drive in my PC, and had no trouble with it until now. I recently tried to install a (legitimate) game from DVD, but the installation failed on copying some files across. Looking at the (old) DVD I put this down to a damaged disc and no more. However, today I tried to copy some files to a CD and Windows reported that the drive was 'read only'. At that point things went a little weird, the drive wouldn't eject, constant activity etc. I tried a standard reboot, but then Windows (Win7) hung on the 'Starting Windows' screen. Only if I powered down the PC, and then boot 'from cold' could I get back into Windows. I haven't tried the drive again (nervous and want to double check I have a complete back up first!), but is it possible that the attempted installation could have damaged the drive? Is it just a coincidence? I know a new drive is a small thing in the grand scheme of things, but I do like to know why things go wrong (to stop it happening again if I can!), and so any advice would be most welcome. Many thanks, Paul
Drives die, causes could be nearly anything. Buy a $25 new one and be on your way. If need be throw the connecter cable into another slot to ensure its not a mobo issue.
Sounds like a faulty drive to me too. If you can, test with another computer to confirm. Now you've got an excuse to upgrade to blu-ray.
Thanks so much for the responses. It certainly does sound like a dead drive. I have probably been lucky over the years in that whilst other parts have failed, I've never had a CD/DVD drive fail until now! In the grand scheme of things, I have to be happy that it is a pretty cheap thing to replace. Once again, thanks for the comments!
