#CD ROM & NDW 2.0
4 messages in this thread
Hello,
I've got a problem that's been driving me crazy for the past few
days, hopefully someone can give me an answer. I just recently installed a
Soundblaster internal CD ROM drive (Panasonic model: 521-C). All went
well with the installation and the drive performs flawlessly. Here is my
problem: I am running Norton Desktop for Windows (ver. 2.0) as my shell,
everytime I start windows I get an error message stating: "System Error.
Cannot read from drive E." I hit the cancel button three times (yes,
three) or I leave a CD in the drive and I am in windows with no further
problems. Drive "E" is my CD ROM drive. I have the latest version of
MSCDEX (ver.2.21), so that can't be the problem. I spent a long time on
the phone both with Symantec and Microsoft, neither could figure out what
was wrong. Symantec suggested the patch COMPAT.EXE would help, it didn't.
This is more of an annoyance than a problem, but none the less, I
would prefer my system to function without any undo errors.
BTW, I spoke with one of the knowledgeable salesmen at a local
Egghead Software store, running the same CD drive and NDW 2.0, they have no
problem starting windows, so it must be in one of the *.sys or *.ini
files. I know there is a fix, somewhere. Any assistance would be
greatly appreciated.
Paul…
NDW installs a slew of stuff in your config and autoexec files if you let
it when you first set it up. Sorry if this seems obvious, but if anything
refers to the E: drive as a parameter your system will check the
drive…this may be why you avoid the problem if a CD is in the drive. Also
check all your programs in the auto start group and in the load and run
lines of win.ini for the same problem, as well as any pif files referenced
in either place. Even so much as a simple E: on a line could cause the
problem. Also, check to be sure that the CD driver is compatible with
MSCDEX 2.21 – I had a problem with that, needed version 2.20 instead. This
is the kind of subtle problem that drives me nuts – good luck, Paul.
Gerald,
Thanks for the advice, again, I'll double check for ANY occurances
of "E:\", I'm getting old so I may have missed something.
Paul…
Paul,
Have you got NDW using "Expandable/Collapsable Trees"? Check under the
"TREE" menu. If it is set (checked), I believe NDW scans each of your
disks on startup to get it's tree information, the idea being that you'll
never have to "refresh" manually. Obviously, if it goes to check your E:
drive, and there's no CD in there, it will fail.
Maybe NDW at the Egghead store was set NOT to use "Expan/Collap Trees", so
it wouldn't bother to check the CD drive. Try unchecking it and see if
that makes any difference!
Mark Haase