XP reinstal changed Bios and other things

Howdy, I just did a re-install of XP pro. w/ service pack 2
it changed my bios and added a removable hard drive, which I am not aware of owning. :-D
my computer shows

3 1/2 floppy as A
local disc as C
extra hard drive two as D, it used to be E
extra hard drive one as E, it used to be D
removable Disk as F...I don't have one?
DVD-RW drive as G, it used to be F
DVD-RW 2 drive as H, it used to be G

my DVD changes to CD whenever I put a blank DVD in them.

I have a GeForce 6100-M9 biostar motherboard that is pretty much self contained as it has sound and video cards made in it.

I need to know if the reinstall and changing of the BIOS is what has created this frustrating situation with the DVD RWs that I have. it does it with both of them and wont allow me to burn a DVD.

I noticed in my computer that as soon as I place a blank DVD in the writer that it reads it as a cd. autoplay pops up and want to know what I want to do with this blank CD.

should I change my BIOS? if so How? or what other step should I try?

thanks and I hope I put this in the right forum.

Cards

 

I don't think that's a bios issue. If you go into Computer management and then Disk Management you can change the drive letter on you hard drive.

As for drive letters of optical drives i'm not sure

 

I see the devices, I think the 3 1/2 floppy is not right. should I delete the one?
how do I rename the drives?

it shows 2 drives that I don't have.
one that seems to mirror my D drive and one that says I have 7.45 gigs on....I don't have a drive like that. should I delete it?

when I did the reinstall I did the lengthy one where I formatted the drive.

 

Letters are assigned to all drives every time you turn on your computer so its irrelevant what the letters are,the extra disks are a concern though my first guess is that you have a store bought computer with a recovery partition that you didn't remove when you reformatted.

You say it seems to mirror your D drive,well is it an exact mirror? Carefully check exactly what's on the drive,CD and DVD's can sometimes be classed as removable storage which could be the reason for the screw up,try switching the jumpers on the back of the CD and DVD drives to slave and master to see if they begin to operate,your updated bios could definitely be causing this,if it happened just after you flashed it you should consider flashing the old bios back.

Enter your Bios,hit F2 or Del usually as soon as the comp turns on and keep tapping it,check how many drives the bios can see and post.

If you have a link to the updated bios and the readme please add in your next post.

 

It seems with the reformat of your system you have removed "previous" partitions that were on a single HDD (or 2), and thus your seeing less.

In the process you have removed your DVD burning software and need to replace it.

 

hi , thanks for the replies ...happy Thanksgiving.

I am not sure I have lost anything Bold Eagle. It's added Drives,
My regular drives are working fine. I just have these extras.

the DVD RW...change as soon as I place a DVD in them to CD ROMs...but I can still burn DVDs . Although on my main burner , it will shut down , so I use my other one and so far it has been burning great. knock wood.

I am not sure how to do anything in BIOS..so you will have to send me a link maybe, so I can study up on it. I don't know how to place an image of it.

I do HAve a screen shot of my Device Manager and what it looks like.

If I am able to post something else I will try.

thanks again.

Cards.

 

I guess one basic question would be how did you install XP? Was this using a Recovery CD from your PC manufacturer or a retail XP installation CD?

A Recovery CD from the manufacturer could put a 7.5 gb partition at the front of the drive but it shouldn't be empty.

About the F: drive did you have any USB devices attached when you did the reinstall?

Did you install any drive emulator software like Daemon Tools or PowerISO or MagicISO?

 

I have a XP Professional version 2002 with service pack 3 Disk that I bought. so it is straight from Microsoft.
I did have my Logitech mouse remote in and I think my printer and scanner also have USB hookups so they would have been in as well when I did the re-install.
I did format the C drive , where I put the windows XP OS. and it was an install and not a repair.
I do not have any Drive Emulators.
I use the C drive for windows and a few select programs and the other two for pics and videos. I store anything I download on the stuff drive.
I have had the hard drives for a while and switch them out to different towers over the years as my PC grew.
also now I have to hit F1 to load anytime I start my PC.

thanks
Cards