disappearing disk drives

[Guest]

My CD-Rom and DVD drives seem to have disappeared. My BIOS identifies both
of them (and my computer can boot up from a CD -- so it's not a hardware
issue as far as I can tell). However, I cannot access either drive from
within Windows. My Windows software seems to see the CD drive (it's listed
in when I look at my hardware within the system control panel), but it will
not read a CD I place in the drive. It doesn't see the DVD drive at all.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I appreciate all help.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

My CD-Rom and DVD drives seem to have disappeared. My BIOS identifies both
of them (and my computer can boot up from a CD -- so it's not a hardware
issue as far as I can tell). However, I cannot access either drive from
within Windows. My Windows software seems to see the CD drive (it's listed
in when I look at my hardware within the system control panel), but it will
not read a CD I place in the drive. It doesn't see the DVD drive at all.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I appreciate all help.

Have a look at the Device Manager (Start / Settings / Control Panel /
System / Hardware / Device Manager / DVD/CD-ROM Drives

 

[Guest]

That's part of the problem. When I look in the Device Manager, it lists the
CD-Rom drive. It does not list the DVD drive. So Windows knows there is a
CD drive. However, it will not read a CD. When I put a CD into the drive,
it acts as though there is no CD present. I know the CD drive can read CDs
because my computer will boot from a CD. The problem is somewhere in how
Windows is interacting with the CD drive. (As I mentioned before, the BIOS
sees both the CD and DVD drives.)

I'm sorry if my first explanation was unclear.

Does anyone have any other ideas?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Your first step should be to use System Restore to return the
machine to the condition it was in a few days before the problem
became apparent. If this does not solve the problem then this
link might help: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/314060 .

 

[Peter Foldes]

Kariane

Try the following in the below KB

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;320553

 

[Guest]

Unfortunately, I reinstalled Windows in an earlier attempt to cure this
issue. I started by deleting the hardware and having Windows search for it
again. It always found the CD drive, never found the DVD drive, and neither
drive would function. At that point, a system restore probably would have
been a good thing to try. However, after modifying the registry also failed
to work, I tried reinstalling my Windows software (actually, I had it repair
my Windows program -- I didn't wipe my computer clean). That didn't work
either. But I no longer have a restore point prior to this problem. Ooops.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the suggestion. I have actually tried both of these (first
deleting the drives and trying to have Windows locate them again, then
modifying the registry). I'm sad to say that neither solved my problem.