Tuesday 17 December 2013
Sometimes your CD or DVD drive
doesn’t show up in the My Computer section. You can’t use your CD/DVD drive in
spite of actually having it on your computer. Also, sometimes it may happen
that it shows up but is unable to play the files in CD/DVD.
Such problems in Windows aren’t that
uncommon. This could arise due to many reasons. Some common reasons are:
§
Corrupted registry entry.
§
CD/DVD driver problem.
§
Installation and un-installation
of DVD recording programs.
§
Un-installation of Microsoft Digital
Image.
This articles elaborates all the
necessary steps you have to perform to solve the missing drive problem in
Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows XP.
How to solve
missing cd/dvd drive issue
You can solve this problem by using
the in-built troubleshooter in Windows 7 or by tweaking your computer’s
registry settings in Windows Vista and XP. Note that if you change or delete a
wrong registry file then it might result in serious issues with your PC.
Therefore it is highly advisable to backup
your registry before starting the process.
If this solution doesn’t work then
you have to uninstall your CD/DVD device driver and reinstall it. We’ll talk
about that too.
Windows 7
If you don’t find CD or DVD drive on
your Windows 7 computer then you can take help of “Playing and Burning CDs,
DVDs, and Blu-ray Discs troubleshooter” to resolve the issue.
1. Click Start button
2. On search box, type Troubleshooting. Open
the result.
3. On left click “View All”.
4. Click “Playing and Burning CDs,
DVDs, and Blu-ray Discs”.
If this method doesn’t work, it
might be possible that the problem exists inside your computer’s hardware. You
can make use of “Hardware and Devices troubleshooter”. It checks all the
hardware issues and confirms that your CD/DVD drive is installed correctly or
not.
1. Again click on “Start” button.
2. On search box, type Troubleshooting. Open
the result.
3. Under “Hardware and Sound”
setting, click “Configure a device”. If prompted for confirmation click “Yes”.
4. Now reboot your computer and check
for drive by clicking on Start button and then “Computer”. If the drive is
listed then your problem is solved.
Windows Vista
1. Press “Start” button.
2. In search box enter “regedit”.
Click on the result “regedit.exe”.
3. If prompted for a
confirmation, click “Allow”. It will open the Registry Editor.
4. In registry editor you have to
locate a registry key by expanding directories on left pane. Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
5. Click on folder named
“{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}”.
6 In the right pane, right click on “Upper
filters” and select delete from the context menu. If asked to confirm the
deletion, click “Yes”.
Note If you see a registry entry “UpperFilters.bak” then don’t
delete it.
7. If you don’t find any UpperFilters
entry then there should be LowerFilters entry. Right click on
it and delete it. If asked to confirm the deletion, click “Yes”.
8. Exit Registry editor and reboot
your computer. This should resolve the issue and your CD drive icon should now
show up.
Windows XP
1. Click
Start. Click Run.
2. In the
Run box, type regedit and click OK.
3. In registry editor, go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
4. Click
on {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} .
5. On the
right pane, right click on UpperFilters and select delete from the context
menu. If asked to confirm the deletion, click “Yes”.
6. If you
don’t find UpperFilters registry entry then there should be LowerFilters
registry entry. Right click on it and select delete from the menu. If asked to
confirm the deletion, click “Yes”.
7. Exit
Registry editor and reboot your computer.
If the above steps don’t work and drive still doesn’t show
up
You have
to remove and reinstall the device drivers for the drive. Here I am explaining
the process for Windows Vista and Windows XP. Process for Windows 7 is almost
same as Windows Vista.
Windows Vista and Windows 7
1. Click
Start button
2. Type Device manager in the search box. Click on the
result.
3. On device manager, expand “DVD/CD-ROM drives”. Right-click
the CD and DVD devices, and then click “Uninstall”.
4. Reboot your PC.
5. The
drivers will be automatically installed after your PC restarts.
Windows XP
1. Go to
Start > Control Panel.
2. Click
System and Maintenance > System.
3. Open
the Hardware tab, click “Device Manager”.
4. Expand DVD/CD-ROM
drives, right-click the CD and DVD device, and then select Uninstall.
5. Reboot your PC. All the drivers will be
automatically reinstalled after restart.
By applying the above mentioned steps, you can
troubleshoot your missing drive problem. If still you are unable to solve the
issue then you could take help of Microsoft Customer Support Services
Web site.
Let us know if you had this problem ever, and
whether you tried these steps to resolve the issue.
