Explorer Can't Find DVD drives

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bob
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Bob

I have two internal DVD drives that I have had for two or three years. All
of a sudden they don't seem to be there. When I explore my computer, they
are not there. My external hard drive (USB) is there; my USB flash drive is
there, but my two DVD drives are not. When this first happened, I could
restart and they would appear, but now that doesn't seem to work either.
There is a flashing green light on one of them, but I cannot open either of
them. Any suggestions as to what happened and how to fix it?
 
When you boot the system - are they shown in the BIOS screens as things get
started? If the BIOS does not 'see' them then Windows won't either.
 
I think so. When I hit ESC when booting, it brings up a menu asking what
drive I want to boot from. It definitely lists the two DVD drives, so I
guess BIOS sees them, but Windows still does not. Also, when I check System
Information under System Tools they do not show up there either. Would a
system restore find them again perhaps?
 
I spoke too fast! When I rebooted, My Computer "saw" the two drives; a few
minutes later they had disappeared. I re-ran the exe, rebooted and they
were back, but did not work. I put a DVD in, but could not open it (got a
message to insert a CD into the drive). Same with the other drive. Then,
shortly later, they again disappeared from My Computer. Very strange!
 
Boot into Safe Mode, open Device Manager, delete/remove any and all DVD
drives you may find, reboot and see if Windows finds them this time.
 
Well that sort of worked to a point. Windows found the "new hardware" and
it shows up on My Computer. But when I put a DVD into either drive, it
doesn't read them. When I try to open them I get a "Please insert a disk
into drive" message, even though there is a disk in the drive and they are
disks that I have used before in each of these drives. Device Manager says
each is working properly.
 
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