Creative NT FAQs: Installing IDE CD-ROM drives

4/19/95

Installing an IDE CD-ROM in Windows NT 3.5

Windows NT 3.5 ships with an IDE CD-ROM (ATAPI 1.2) driver that should support all of the IDE CD-ROMs that Creative Labs currently packages in its multimedia kits. This driver can be installed during or after the installation of NT. The installation and troubleshooting procedures are listed below.

Installing IDE CD-ROM support during the NT installation

During the installation, the user will be asked if he wishes to perform a mass storage device scan. If he presses <Enter> at this time, NT should find the IDE CD-ROM drive during its scan and continue.

Another option is to press <S> to Skip the mass storage device scan, press <S> again to Specify your own SCSI devices and scroll up through the list to IDE CD-ROM (ATAPI 1.2).

Adding IDE CD-ROM support to NT

Start the Windows NT Setup Program from the Main Group. Select Options and click Add/Remove SCSI Adapters... Click ADD and select IDE CD-ROM (ATAPI 1.2) and click Install.

Note: If SETUP asks for floppies at this point instead of prompting for the Current driver, quit SETUP, copy the file ATAPI.SYS from disk 3 to the \WINNT35\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS directory and try this procedure again.

Close the Setup program and Shutdown NT

Trouble shooting IDE CD-ROMs in NT

Check to make sure that the IDE address, IRQ, and port match the table below:

IDE Port	I/O Address	IRQ Lines	
Primary	1F0	14	
Secondary	170	15	
Tertiary (not currently supported)	1E8	11, 12	
Quaternary (not currently supported)	168	10, 11

Try all the settings above except for Primary, 1F0, 14 (Reserved for boot device). Reinstall the driver and shutdown and restart the system each time a configuration change is made.

Check the Event Viewer in the Administrative Tools Group to see if the driver loaded properly. Use the NT Diagnostics program in the Administrative Tools Group to find hardware conflicts.

If the CD-ROM is the only device on its cable, make sure that it is set to Master. If the CD-ROM shares its cable with a hard drive, set the hard drive to Master and the CD-ROM drive to Slave.

Disable the Sound Blaster's IDE port and try the CD-ROM on the existing IDE port.

If you still have problems, get the latest fix pack for Windows NT from Microsoft's BBS. Fix pack should help with problems dealing with the Panasonic 574 & 581 drives.