I have a Dell Dimension XPS T600Mhz running Windows 98SE. The original CD ROM drive quit working recently so I installed a new ASUS CD S520/A4. The drive is recognized as the machine boots (it initializes and the light comes on anyway) and the device manager says it is present and working properly but there is no drive letter assigned. The old CD ROM was E:\. This machine has an Iomega Zip 100 that used to be assigned as D:\ that also has no no drive letter at the moment. When I do a new hardware search in Windows, neither of these devices show up. I don't really need the Zip but it's sure hard to do much without a CD ROM.

I was assured that the new CDROM would automatically be recognized by Windows ('course they didn't say I'd be able to USE it! <g>) I've searched for device drivers but can't find any for 98SE. I've looked at several web sites with suggestions and none of these have helped. The most promising suggestion was to boot from a Windows floppy which would cause Windows to recognize the hardware and tell me what drive letter was assigned. Using this info, I could reinstall Windows. However, I can't even create the floppy because the process requires me to insert the Win98SE CD!

Any ideas what I could try next would be most appreciated. Thanks!