disappearing CD-ROM and other curiosities

Tried to use a SyQuest installation diskette and ended up locking up my computer. Could have been caused by the fact I did not have the hardware hooked up at the time. The instalation seemed to be going along fine for a while and then it just froze.
I am running Windows 98.

After trying a cold start the desk top comes up but the curser is froze. It will operate under safe-mode.

A friend suggested using the Windows 98 disk to try to reinstal. Then I discovered my CD-ROM had vanished.

Have read some of the postings and tried going into Bios and the Primary IDE Slave to Auto and the Secondary IDE Master to Auto. But still no go. Any ideas?
pv

 

When you say your CD ROM has vanished does this mean you can't boot from it? If so this may be because of your Boot Sequence (advanced cmos/bios setup in your BIOS setup utility) or that you're using a back up copy of Windows 98 in which case use a boot floppy or the original CD to access DOS and see if you can access the drive from DOS.

 

Thanks for making time from your party scheduale to respond Party Boy.

When I say vanished, I mean when I try to find an icon or executable anything, I can't find it. Looking in the files using Explorer, no cd-rom or d drive is listed. The only place I can find it listed is under Device Manager. But I can't launch from there.
pv

 

Boot from a windows CD or floppy disk into DOS and see if you can access the drive from DOS eg

D: <return>

DIR <return>

If DOS can detect the drive it will list the directories on the CD in the drive, if this is the case try reinstalling Windows.