CD-ROM/HD conflict

Hello,
a friend of mine has a Gateway PC with Windows XP on it. When he connects
his backup external HD (USB), after some time the CD drive (D) stops working
and disappears from "my computer".Checking the Device Manager, we see that
both items appear under CD drives, each with a yellow exclamation mark.
Apparently, there is a conflict.
Any ideas how to solve it? We appreciate any help.
Petrus

"Petrus Tax" wrote in message
m...
Hello,
a friend of mine has a Gateway PC with Windows XP on it. When he connects
his backup external HD (USB), after some time the CD drive (D) stops
working and disappears from "my computer".Checking the Device Manager, we
see that both items appear under CD drives, each with a yellow exclamation
mark. Apparently, there is a conflict.
Any ideas how to solve it? We appreciate any help.

Simple thing to check first - look in the disk manager and see if they are
set to use the same drive letter, if so, then change one of them. The disk
manager can be reached by right clicking on the My Computer on your desktop,
choose "Manage" to open the Computer Management dialog. Near the bottom of
the tree of icons on the left is Disk Management - check in there. You can
also reach the Computer Management dialog via the Control
Panel-Administrative Tools-Computer Management