File System Drivers Problem

[matt9871235]

Hey Y'all

For some reason i can no longer access any external media... In WIN XP using explorer etc i cannot read any CDs DVDs USB devices Floppy Disk etc. When ever I try and read something it says 'the disc is not formatted... do you want to format it?' this includes all the above, although CDs jut appear as blank.
In DOS when accessing media it reads 'The volume does not contain a recognised file system. Please make sure all the file system drivers are loaded and the volume is not corrupted' and CDs DVDs just says the device is not ready or 'windows cannot read from the disc format' Its pretty annoying since i need to falsh my BIOS and cant make a disk...
Any suggestions?

Motherboard
AMD Athlon-PECM, 1200 MHz (9 x 133)
Gigabyte GA-7ZX-H (5 PCI, 1 AGP, 1 AMR, 3 DIMM, Audio)
VIA VT8363A Apollo KT133A
128 MB (SDRAM)
BIOS Type AMI (04/19/01)

Partitions
C: (FAT32) 39241 MB (23123 MB free)
D: (FAT32) 76297 MB (43183 MB free)

[matt9871235]

Well, no one has replied to this one but ill update you on my progress anyway:
In the last few days i have managed to double my RAM and update my BIOS, leaving only 1 problem:
As mentioned above I cannot access external media EXCEPT when if it is already in the drive when XP starts up !?!? If it is already in it works fine, but if taken out or put in when WIN XP is running it can no longer read it (see above error messages)
And no, i cant reinstall WIN at the moment for various reasons.

You guys have got me far, see if you can apply your brains to this one!! - apoligies to those who have seen this posted as an additional thread elsewhere.

Respect to you all

[in54n3]

did you check all your cables? (IDE Cables, Floppy Cables, USB Connectors, etc...)

also floppy disks can go corrupt in an instant, i had 3 "new" disks that were all corrupt, thought it was my floppy drive, turned out to be the disks (given they were from a few years ago, but never used)

although its weird that this all doesnt work all of the sunnden.


Is your windows all updated? Are you running SP2?


Only things that come to mind....sorry for the lack of replies...puzzling problem to answer if your not actually in front of that computer


Good Luck!

[matt9871235]

The problem stems from my ASPI drivers. Does anyone know anything about this? Apparently they are not installed properly. I went to adaptec and downloaded V 4.712 win32 for WIN XP. The ASPI checker that comes from adaptec reckons they are installed and working... but they are not since none of my drives function properly?
Any suggestions?

[stlouis1]

In DOS when accessing media it reads...
in dos? or when booting off the winxp cd into command prompt?

are you using a single 120gb harddrive with 2 partitions?

and what brand + wattage is your power supply, and how old is it?

i'm thinking (this is a longshot) that you may not be having a software problem and that it may be more hardware related. im thinking mainly on two possibilities, motherboard or power supply, now the device you are having problems with are all running off controllers built in the southbridge, which is the furthest away from the power supply and therefore power has a longer way to go to reach this hub and the devices on it which has me leaning toward the power supply. and motherboards do wierd things when the power supply is slowly dying.

for ex:
i had a system that the mouse was freezing on, i tried a different mouse and it still did the same thing. then i checked the ram and noticed that memtest was freezing at intervals just like the mouse was but the memory tests came out fine. then i thought, well there's quite a bit of current going through patch cables for the network and disabled the onboard network adapter and the system worked fine. i almost RMA'd the motherboard, then i tried a different power supply and it worked