Below is a listing of what causes CDR 101, 102 and 103 errors when accessing CD-ROM drives. If you are looking for additional CD-ROM troubleshooting help, see our CD-ROM page. CDR 101 Cause: Driver issue / Hardware issue. Recommendations: Boot to a: - Attempt to boot from a boot disk that has CD-ROM support. Test the CD-ROM drive. If the drivers are properly loaded on the diskette, however, you still receive a problem, it's a good possibility it is a hardware issue; attempt to reset the cables.
Check cables - If you have moved or installed anything recently into your computer, or booting from A does not detect the CD-ROM, it's a good possibility the cables may not be connected or are loose within your computer. It is recommended that you open your computer and reseat the cables
connected on the back of your CD-ROM drive and connected to your Motherboard.
Check drivers - Verify you have the latest CD-ROM Drives
Booting A works however without disk it does not work - It's a good possibility that the drivers are not being loaded properly within your autoexec.bat / config.sys. See our CD-ROM drivers page for additional driver installation help. CDR 102 Cause: Generally caused by software driver issues. Recommendations: Remove /e from mscdex.exe
Set emm386.exe to auto in the autoexec.bat by adding /auto to the end of the emm386 line within the config.sys CDR 103 Cause: CD does not follow the ISO-9660 standard.
Recommendations: Ensure that the CD is clean. Follow steps on cleaning page. Extra Information: If this issue is occurring with one CD, it is a good possibility the CD either does not follow the above standard or that the CD was incorrectly made. It is recommended you contact the manufacturer of the CD. However, if this issue occurs with every CD, it's a good possibility that the CD-ROM drive may physically have issues and it is recommended you contact the manufacturer of the CD-ROM drive. CD-ROM help | 
