Keep loosing CD-ROM/RW and hard drive

[slaphappy]

I keep loosing my drivers for CD-ROM/RW and hard drive yet everything else is working just fine…printers, monitors, internet, etc…I just can’t access CD drives ??

System: yaya…it’s a bit dated - 2yrs old
Asus av7133 with AMD 800mhz cpu
Windows 98SE
40 gig HD IDE controllers
aopen 12X10X32
creative labs X24


DEVICE MANAGER TELLS ME:

No CD-ROM/RW are listed at all.
All my hard drives [partitioned 40 gig, C,D,E,F] and my floppy are “using MS-DOS compatibility mode file” (code 10)

REINSTALLING WINDOWS TELLS ME:

I can’t install windows from CD as I have no functioning CD-ROM/RW…. so I tried reinstall windows from my back up drive’s E & F.
Reinstalling Windows 98 from the drives E: or F:, results in
“…..setup could not check the hard drives on your computer…you must check your hard drives ….and to run scandisk DOS mode”.
Running scandisk from DOS mode results in the following:

C:\ AVINIT.EXE
Sector not found reading C:
Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail?

Press ignore…..DOS Shell Scan Disk pops up
… “Scandisk cannot read last cluster on C….drive C may need Logical Block Addressing (LBG) or is not configured..”
- yet the system has been working as a partitioned drive for about 2 years??

SO WHAT HAVE I DONE:
Reinstalled drivers.
BIOS registers all drives
Replace config and auto files…but that made things worse….
Did a SyS C from boot disk…nothing happened...?
I reinstalled windows from a GHOST CD (original computer setup)…everything worked fine for about 2 days, now I’m back to no drivers for my CD-ROM/RW and hard drive.
Through NORTON’s 2003 I have used virus scan, diskdoctor, scandisk, etc…and it fixed any found problems…which were minor.
I installed a piece of software called “Active SMART” to find and fix errors on hard drive…but it can’t locate the hard drive either??

The weird thing is that everything else works fine.
I’m starting to think drive C: is damaged, particularly a cluster at the end of the hard drive.

So I guess my next step is to FORMAT C:\

Will this fix the bad cluster? Is my hard drive dying? Do I need a new hard drive or is something else going on??

Oh ya…I can fuddle my way around a computer given a good set of directions/book…but I’m certainly not a computer genius…1 out of 10 here….lol…so the simpler the terms the better.

Thanks for the input!!!!

[LooseChippings]

Make yourself a Win 98 Boot Floppy, boot from floppy and try to install from CD.

What Mode is your Hard Drive set at in BIOS?

Go to the HDD Manufacturers website and see if there is a HDD Diagnostic Tool available - Use with CAUTION