Question : Sec Master Drive ATAPI Incompatible at XP Boot up leading to loss of CD and DVD drives

Over the last few weeks I have been receiving intermittent messages and now I get these messages after every XP boot up

The message is

Sec Master Drive Invalid ATAPI Incompatible
Followed by options to Resume or run setup (F2 and F1)

This leads to me having neither my CD or DVD Drive available in XP
(As additional info if I press F2 to resume XP takes an age to load so I tend to ignore the options and let it carry on booting)

I am very concerned that the lack of a CD Drive is a security exposure as I would be unable to reinstall XP or load new software should I have problems.

I have made no hardware changes to the computer at and have just been applying standard XP maintenance via the Windows Update facility

My evironment is
Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 1 (build 2600)  
1.40 gigahertz AMD Athlon XP
128 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache   Board: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. 7ZXE 1.x
Bus Clock: 133 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 62710 12/04/2001
ATAPI CD-R/RW 24X10 (CD-ROM drive)
HL-DT-ST DVD-ROM GDR8160B (CD Rom Drive)

I need an urgent and safe fix for this problem that will not leave me without access to XP

Answer : Sec Master Drive ATAPI Incompatible at XP Boot up leading to loss of CD and DVD drives

When SP2 first arrived on the scene, I was recommending a wait period before my clients installed this, but now there is enough out there on the web, and in MS's own KB database that I no longer am afraid of working with it.  I have upgraded all my systems and have found very little to be concerned with there.  But, if you want to read some of what I have written on this, feel free to visit my SP2 page on my site:  (It outlines some of the concerns, and what it could possibly break..)

www.doverproductions.com

FE