CD/DVD drive missing but not.....

[Guest]

Greetings!

My Dell PC came preloaded with Vista Ulitmate. Everything was fine until
about a month ago the CD/DVD drive disappeared from "My Computer". Its shows
in Device Manager and says it is functioning fine. I did however, delete the
drive and reboot so Windows would redetect it. All seems to go as it should
but still no CD/DVD drive in "My Computer".

After a bit of searching I found an article Advising to delete a few
registry keys. I did that also with no effect.

Here is the part I find strange: I am able to make a shortcut to my CD/DVD
drive and it works fine, iTunes will burn CD's just fine, & I can go to Disk
Management and it sees the drive and its drive letter.

Dell's solution was to use the restore disk.......NOT gonna happen. I have
no desire to go back and set everything back to the way i have it now.

Thank you in advance for your help and replies.

~Grey

 

[Peter Foldes]

After a bit of searching I found an article Advising to delete a few

registry keys. I did that also with no effect.

Which keys were the ones that you deleted from the registry

 

[Guest]

Step 1: In Vista search box on the start menu - type in regedit.
Step 2: Open Registry Edit (regedit link appears)
Step 3: Under Computer, open the folder for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Step 4: Then open the folder SYSTEM
Step 5: Then open the folder CurrentControlSet
Step 6: Open the CONTROL folder
Step 7: Open the folder "Class"
Step 8: Look carefully for the folder called
{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
*On my HP, it's the 9th folder down - just double check the
number
sequence carefully.
Step 9: On the right side of the open panel, you'll see a listing with lots
of
information - NEXT to (Default) be sure it reads DVD/CD-ROM
drives -
Class should be CDROM
Step 10: There are two files called UpperFilters and LowerFilters. Delete
UpperFilters first by clicking the delete key, then say yes. Repeat the
process with LowerFilters.
***Be sure the files you're deleting say only UpperFilters and LowerFilters,
nothing else.
Step 11: Restart your computer.

**Thanks for the quick response Peter**

 

[Peter Foldes]

Under 4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318 key

Did you delete the Upper and Lower Filters and NOT the UpperFilters.bak and LowerFilters.bak?

 

[Hsherman]

Did you install a flash drive just prior to the problem surfacing? I did
this and my DVD drive disappeared from Computer display. Removed the flash
drive and the DVD drive was back. If I reinsert the flash drive, the DVD
drive again disappears. In my case, the DVD drive and flash drive are same
brand (LG), so its probably a driver problem.

After a bit of searching I found an article Advising to delete a few
registry keys. I did that also with no effect.

Which keys were the ones that you deleted from the registry

 

[Guest]

I don't recall ever seeing UpperFilters.bak and LowerFilters.bak. I do not
have those keys there now. Is that a bad thing??

 

[Guest]

I have used a flash drive on the machine several times but for the most part,
i do not have one installed and the DVD drive is still missing.