I recently ran into an issue where my DVD drive on Windows was missing from the device list on My Computer. He was there before, but he just disappeared! After doing a little research, I found some effective solutions.
Unfortunately, the solutions differ depending on which OS you are running: XP, Vista or Windows 7/8/10. I will try to list as many fixes for this problem as possible and indicate which OS it applies to.
Reinstall the drivers
Often in Device Manager, you will see this message about your CD / DVD drive:
Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be damaged or missing. (Code 39)
You can reinstall the drivers for your CD / DVD drive by clicking Start, Control Panel, System and Security, System, and then clicking Device Manager.
Expand CD / DVD-ROM Drives, then right-click the device and select Uninstall. Restart your computer and Windows will automatically detect the drive and reinstall the drivers.
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If your hardware doesn’t even show up in Device Manager, you might actually have a hardware problem, such as a bad connection or a broken disk. If your computer is old, you should choose this option.
Check BIOS settings
If you have recently entered the BIOS, then you should make sure that the drive does not accidentally shut down. This usually happens very rarely, but there are times when it can happen. This is especially true if you’ve given your computer to someone else for repair or something similar.
You need to make sure the CD / DVD ROM drive is at least listed as an option on the boot options page.
The problem of the top filters / bottom filters
If your Windows XP or Windows Vista computer is unable to recognize the CD / DVD drive, then you may have a classic problem that probably won’t appear on any computer that has the latest Windows updates installed.
You need to edit two registry entries to fix the problem in Windows XP and Vista. You can do it manually or download the patch from Microsoft here:
http: //support.microsoft.com/mats/sd_dvd_drive_problems/en-us
If you want to do it manually, go to regedit and navigate to this entry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SYSTEM CurrentControlSet Control Class {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
In the right pane, you should see top filters and bottom filters. Delete both of them and restart your computer.
Run the Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter
If you’re having a problem on Windows 7, you can try running the Hardware and Devices troubleshooter. This automatically diagnoses and tries to fix the problem.
Note that this will probably only work if you can see the CD / DVD drive in the BIOS and in Device Manager, but not elsewhere in Windows. If you don’t see it in these two locations, you have a hardware or connection problem.
You can run the troubleshooter by clicking Start, Control Panel, and searching for the troubleshooter in the search box. Click Troubleshoot. Finally, under Hardware and Sound, click on Configure Device.
Click Next and Windows will detect the problems and try to fix them automatically.
Edit the registry
If none of this works, you can try editing a registry key that may have been deleted or corrupted. Open an Administrator Command Prompt and copy and paste the following:
reg.exe add “HKLM System CurrentControlSet Services atapi Controller0” / f / v EnumDevice1 / t REG_DWORD / d 0x00000001
Restart your computer and see if the drive is recognized.
Delivery of the letter
You also need to make sure that a drive letter is assigned to the drive and that that drive letter is not already occupied by another device. Read my previous post on how to change drive letters in Windows to see if the drive letter is causing it to appear.
system recovery
If you are still having problems and your disk appeared before but is now gone, you can try performing a System Restore to a time when the disk was working correctly.
Sometimes new software is installed that can damage your system and stop recognizing your CD / DVD drive.
If that doesn’t work, try connecting the drive to another computer and see if it appears there. You can quickly determine if the problem is hardware or the Windows operating system. Good luck!
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