IBM Thinkpad 380XD Windows 95, Disappearing CD-ROM (D drive)

edited April 2017 in Software
While reinstalling my PCMCIA modem, after I formatted the hard drive, and did a clean Windows install,
my machine froze and so I manually shut it down and restarted it, of course since it wasn't shutdown properly, it ran ScanDisk and then booted into Windows.

When I went to My Computer, I saw the A and C drive, but there was no D drive! None!

I then restarted in MS-DOS mode to test if I can access the drive with DOS, I could, but it failed to read it. I then shutdown the computer and turned it on again, the D drive was back.

So it seems it disappears after an improper exit of Windows. I have never encountered anything like this before, ever, and I have worked with older Windows systems a lot, well at least mid to late 90's systems, like this one designed in 1997. Anyone know what the fuck is going on?

Comments

  • Chalk it up to hardware quirks and glitchy drivers. I remember the CD-ROM drive on my PB disappeared when I installed the driver for the soundcard (Ess AudioDrive 1869). After a couple of reboots, the drive showed back up. Unless a couple of restarts don't get it working again, it's probably nothing to worry about.
  • i've restarted it countless times now, and it doesn't ever show up again.
  • edited April 2017
    Oh, crap. Try using the "Add New Hardware" tool in the Control Panel. It can sometimes fix borked drivers and hardware settings.
    After a couple of reboots, the drive showed back up.
    What happened to make it disappear again?
  • funny, now it's working again after restaring in ms-dos mode and then typing "win"

    P.S: it seems that nwo when I restart in DOS mode, and then type the following commands:

    D:
    Dir
    Win

    windows boots up, and the D drive does appear in My Computer, and it reads fine. But Whenever I restart normally or power on normally and go automatically into Windows, it isn't there.
  • It probably put the DOS driver in the DOSSTART.BAT file (run at exit to dos), but that would imply there should also be a separate protected mode driver.

    When you do see the drive in Windows, check the status in the system performance properties and see if it running in MS-DOS compatiblity mode.
  • I just formatted the hard drive, installed Win95A off of my 22 floppies.

    Installed video and audio drivers. Now I am going to install the modem.

    Before I had Windows 95 OSR 2.5, however I am not going to make use of the USB ports, and I was born in 1995 so it'd be cool to use the origional Windows 95, because I was about 6 months old during the launch day with Jay Leno and shit.

    Plus, the drivers for my modem support Win95a and 0a only, so that may explain issues with my D drive after installation of the modem.
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