I have been having trouble the past few weeks with my computer. My dvd drive (pioneer) on my dell "disappeared" from my computer window, and i could not access it. I was having a few other glitches as well, so i took the computer in to do a complete re=install of windows XP. i got it back, with the DVD working fine for one day. i installed Norton 360, DVD shrink and DVD decryptor (from old install files i had on my harddrive). After one use, my dvd drive disappeared, again. I went into BIOS and it won't recognise the DVD drive. I switched the drive with my Benq drive, and the Pioneer worked fine in the other machine, Benq drive did not work on my dell. Switched ribbon cables, still no change. Went into reg.edit and took out "upper filters" from file, tried also windows reg fix, no solution. So i went out and purchased an external USB DVD drive, worked for one hour, then this new dvd drive joined the other in oblivion!?!? Can any one tell me if any of DVD shrink, DVD decryptor, or Norton 360 will have code to disable DVD drives and how to fix this problem? Many thanks..Will
It's more likely that you downloaded malware or a roootkit.
The first question would be if device manager shows the drives as being there.
A device can exist on the computer but will not show up in "My Computer" if a drive letter (for whatever reason) is not assigned.
If it were me, I would first work to resolve whether the PC "sees the device" (BIOS SCAN) then the system OS actually "sees" the drive (device manager), then whether or not a drive letter is being assinged.
Those three issues need to be verified before you'd have any chance of accessing the drive.
If you can boot a CD or DVD (such as the windows install CD or DVD) then you can pretty mych eliminate the BIOS scan step.
Just to add a second opinion, I'd agree on the malware potential.
Another possible issue is your optical drivers (ASPI, SPTI, etc) were somehow messed up. Seen that too.
