I have had this same problem. I've had to restore my computer to factory
settings three time now. Suggestions I have received are to:
1).Try right cliking on the COMPUTER window & choose REFRESH: This has no
effect.
2) Check the VIEW settings & TOOLS folder options, too. Also check
ORGANIZE, LAYOUT menu in the COMPUTER window. Select the Navigation Pane to
see an Explorer view. None of these reveal the drive. It is GONE!
3) I went to DEVICE MANAGER, right cliked on the Optiarc DVD listing,
clicked on PROPERTIES, clicked on the GENERAL tab, and got the Device Status
Message, "Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The
driver may be corrupted or missing." I went to the dos window, and was able
to locate the driver. It is c:\windows32\drivers\cdrom.sys. It's there, but
Windows does not recognize it.
The only way I have found to get the drive back is to restore, as I said.
Next time instead of backing up to the CDRom, I'm going to backup to the D:
drive, because, of course, when the CDRom is missing, there is no way to
restore from the normal backup procedure. Another thing I'm going to do is
to backup to the CDRom, so after the factory restore I can then restore from
the CDRom, and won't have to keep reinstalling and re-registering my
software, not to mention the lost Office data files.
After the system restore, everything works fine until I reinstall the Driver
Software from my new Epson CX6000. Shortly after doing that, the CD/DVD
drive disappears. I experimented with deleting the drivers, and when I got to
deleting the Epson Scan software, I got a notice that an unauthorized program
was trying to take control of the computer. Needless to say, I'm going to
remain printerless until I can get more information. When installing the
Driver software, I get a notice that Microsoft has determined that the
software is incompatible, but catch-twenty-two, I do not have Internet access
at home in order to select the update option. I did try updating it after
installing, but lost the two-sided printing option. And, the CD/DVD Rom
disappeared later, anyway.
Perhaps you are also experiencing some software incompatibility. The
replies I received assured me that it is impossible to delete the CD/DVD
drive. However, we both know that just isn't so! I now suspect some
malicious software. Any Ideas, anyone?