I'm looking for help with the problems I've been having with my CD drives recently, and I'd be grateful for any solutions! Here's the problem:

I have a DVD-Rom drive and a CD-R/RW drive. Recently, the two drives stopped reading discs and they both vanished from "My Computer" - as if they were never there at all!

My DVD-Rom drive still OPENS and the light flashes, but the computer just doesn't seem to realise it's there, while my CD-R/RW drive doesn't work at all.

I rang a computer shop and they told me that I'd have to go out and buy new disk drives, so I did. I bought a DVD-Rom/CD-R/CD-RW drive that connects up via a USB port. This new drive has exactly the same problem! The light turns on, and the tray will open, but that's it - the computer just doesn't realise it's there!!

Am I doing something wrong? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Newaglishthe pc shop MAY have mis-lead you if its winxp the  you need the reg patchwinxp has a problem displaying drives  this may help if it does it again its called cdgone SCROLL down the page and you will see it>http://www.aumha.org/regfiles.htm