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I keep getting an error message (D:\ is not accessible, the device is not reaady. What seems to be the problem?

Posted By : Ileen of Katharine Gibbs School - New York on February 28, 2003

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Before moving to school this fall I had a new CD-Rom drive installed that had DVD and CD-RW capabilities. I was able to use this drive at home, but since moving here I have not been able to use any software on CD. When I place a CD in the drive and then try to open it from My Computer, an error message comes up that reads "D:\ is not accessible. The device is not ready." I have tried placing the restoration software in the drive and turning off the computer, hoping that when it rebooted, it would read that software before booting up from the hard drive, but it did not work. The computer will not read any type of CD--music, computer software, dvd, etc. I cannot figure out what is wrong.

This question was answered on February 28, 2003. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.


The most frequent problem with a Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) or CD-ROM drive is that the computer is unable to read the disc " is not accessible Device is not ready." This error message may occur because the computer system is no longer detecting the drive or it is unable to access the disc that is in the drive You first need to ensure that the disc is correctly inserted with the label facing up You should also inspect the disc for scratches or smudges that might prevent the computer from reading the disc To eliminate the disc as the cause of the problem, you need to replace it with another disc to see whether the computer can read it When you are certain the CD is not faulty, you need to access the Windows Device Manager to ensure that the computer recognizes the CD-ROM drive If the computer doesn't recognize the drive, you need to reload the drive's driver and check its system resources If neither the CD nor the CD-ROM drive driver is faulty, you need to examine the ribbon cable connection and the jumper setting If the problem persists, you need to connect the CD-ROM drive to another computer to determine whether the drive has failed

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Posted by Ileen of Katharine Gibbs School - New York on February 28, 2003

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