"Missing" DVD drive

[leco]

One of the teacher laptops (Windows XP Pro) does not display the DVD drive in My Computer. It is not shown in Device Manager either. I have tried to 'scan for new hardware' to no avail. There are no Group Policies active except WSUS.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions please?

[john]

IDE / Sata controller working fine on it?

[Michael]

Can you see it in the BIOS? Can you still eject the drive?

[mac_shinobi]

Shutdown the machine, if it is a modular bay then remove it and re seat it and ensure its seated firmly and then switch it back on and try again.

 

Also ensure that the jumpers on the drive are set ( if it has any ? )

 

If that does not work then purchase a new compatable drive for it, possibly

[Ryan]

i get this sometimes - power off, reseat everything, then boot up (checking BIOS on the way) normally sorts it.

 

I almost had kittens when i powered up my home machine and one of the HDDs didn't appear Sod's law it's the one with all the important stuff on it...

[Lithium]

On some of our Dell machines, the only way we could get them to be found was to "Load Setup Defaults"... we never found what options it even changed either...

[leco]

Thanks guys, will check all your suggestions in the morning when I'm back at the school.

 

I think maybe there is more to this than meets the eye as I had a telephone call (at home) from the teacher (also at home) because she couldn't log in - said it was locked by the Administrator.

 

Will check that tomorrow also.

[FN-GM]

Try pulling it our and putting it back in again?

[bizzel]

On some of our Dell machines, the only way we could get them to be found was to "Load Setup Defaults"... we never found what options it even changed either...

 

I've also seen this one some Dell Latitudes. Everything looks to be alright in the bios but you have to load defaults anyway to get the drive back.

[EduTech]

I have also seen this on one of the machines.. not apperaing in my computer.

also had it at home with an hard drive.

 

it was down to the Drive not having a Drive Letter;

 

Right Click My Computer > Manage > Disk Management > Find Optical Drive/Hard Drive > Right Click on Info Area > Click on Change Drive Letter or Path > Add Drive Letter

 

It might not be that if it is not showing in Device Manager but i cannot remember weather my Hard Drive was when i had this. worth a try anyways just a thought

 

Regards

 

James

[leco]

Meanwhile back at staaately Junior School - the drive has now re-appeared. In DisK Management and Device Manager and My Computer. So it will remain a mystery - until next time.

 

Incidentally the drive is not modular nor is the laptop a D***

 

Many thanks for all your suggestions, they are saved in my tool box for that next time which will certainly come sooner or later when I least expect it.