One day you turn on your computer and cannot see the CD-ROM or the DVD-ROM drive in the My Computer window anymore. This problem is very common for laptop and notebook computers and might be caused by a failed drive or by corrupted software. You can try the following repair steps before you decide that your drive is bad.
- I found this solution on Microsoft website and it helped me many times to fix the problem with a missing DVD/CD-ROM drive. I always try removing the CD/DVD drive from the device manager first and if it doesn’t fix the problem I go with removing the registry entry. Method 1 worked very well for me.
- If the above mentioned methods didn’t work for you, you can try to reseat the optical drive. Overtime the CD-ROM drive connector might get oxidized and a simple drive reseating can fix the problem. Try to remove the drive from the laptop and put it back. See if it will fix the problem.
- You can also try to boot from any bootable CD to see if you laptop recognize the CD-ROM drive on BIOS level. Put any bootable CD (Live Linux CD, Windows XP CD, Windows 2000 CD, etc) into the CD-ROM drive and change the boot order to start from the CD-ROM drive. If you laptop starts to boot from the CD, then the drive is recognized in BIOS and most likely it operates properly. In this case look for a software problem. It might be necessary to reload the operating system to fix the software problem. If you cannot boot your laptop from a bootalbe CD, then the drive might be bad itself.
42 Responses
wally
My toshiba 1800 laptop does not recognize my new Teac DV28E dvd rom.On boot up it displays IDE # 1 error.When I install my old DV28E drive there is no problem booting up it is recognises but the optical drive does not function.If I then hot swap drives the new drive will work properly until I reboot, the laptop will not boot up and I have to restart all over again.
Please help me.
cj2600
Hi Wally,
I know that this problem exists with some optical drives. I’ve never seen it myself, but here is my guess. For example, your laptop has only one IDE channel. Both drives, the hard drive and the CD-Rom drive connect to the same channel. The hard drive is configures as a master. If your optical drive is configured as a master too then you’ll get an error. Try to compare both drives you have and see if you can find how they are configured, may be it’s labeled somewhere. I guess you are getting the error because your new drive is configured differently then the old drive.
Rory
My Toshiba Satellite A75’s DVD RW drive vanished one day as in the article above. I decided to DIY after a quote came back for repair as more than the current value. I can’t access the regedit program and the device didn’t show up so that I could replace the driver. Boot cd didn’t register either. I ordered a Panasonic combo drive to replace the original and installed. Nothing has changed from my original problems. Is there a trojan eating away at my DVD drives or IDE channels? Please help?!
cj2600
Hi Rory,
I think your old DVD-RW is just dead, and new one has a different configuration then the old one. If you want to repair the laptop yourself, try to replace a failed part with the original Toshiba part.
It is also possible that the controller on the system board is bad and even a new original device will not be recognized. Sorry, cannot give you a good advice. It is impossible to troubleshoot this kind of problems over the Internet.
Tin
Toshiba satellite labtop model 2405-S201 show cdrom/dvd r/w work properly in the system but can not read any file at all
cj2600
Tin,
Go to device manager and uninstall the CD-ROM driver. After that reboot the laptop. Windows will locate and install the driver automatically. See if it can fix the problem.
Tin
I did per this suggestion and still not fix the problem, please give more advise
Thank you
Tin
A few more detail of what happen on the drive d: (cd-rom) I do the system check on device manager ,it show have cd-rom on drive d:and device unit say it operate correctly, I insert the cd and watch the unit the light blink two flah then stop which I assume they know it has cd inside . I clik to open the file is empty.I clik the eject from the keyboard, it eject the drive o.k.Perhap my driver is bad so I uninstall then reboot the system window reinstall the driver and it did show the same as it beore. My question is ? Is the cd unit optical reader is bad or the spin motor drive cd is defective, there is no noise of the motor and . How to test the drive before purchase the replacement unit.
Thank you to any one for try to help me out this solution
Tin
Jesus
Hi, everyone. My Toshiba Satellite A35 turns on but doesn’t start. When I plug in the energy cord the energy led’s turns on. When I and press the start button it try to, but a recursive sound (tac, tac, tac…) begin and flashes the DVD led’s and the screen is off. If I open the DVD unit with a clip, then the sound stops but the computer does anything else. I was wondering if anyone can help me.
cj2600
It’s possible that a defective DVD drive stops the entire system from booting. Try to remove the drive and turn on the laptop. See if you can boot with video. Can you get video on the screen?
Martin
Cool the driver works again!!!
sam jones
To resolve this behavior, follow these steps:
Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).
Locate the UpperFilters value under the following key in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
On the Edit menu, click Delete, and then click OK.
Locate the LowerFilters value under the same key in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
On the Edit menu, click Delete, and then click OK.
cj2600
Thank you Sam Jones,
More information you can find on the Microsoft website here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060/
janeda
Thank you so much I tried everything I could sony’s website couldn’t help me and I tried so many things I was working on this for like 20 hours straight!!! I did this and 5 minutes later my cdrom was visible and working again!!! THANK YOU SOOOOOO MUCH
raMp
It Worked Great with removeing the registry file and then update driver in system unitcontrol.
what coused my problem was Deamon tools
wich i set to Number of devices to 0 and then back to 1.
Thx alot!
Marco
I have the same problem, i tried using your method to solve the problem, when i start to search the upperfilters, my surprise was there is not a upperfilter in the registry in the folder {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
I tried everything, and i’m desperated, please HELP!!!
Thanks
cj2600
Marco,
Make sure this problem is not related to the DVD drive itself. Try booting your laptop from a bootable CD. If you cannot boot the laptop from a bootable CD, it’s possible that the drive is bad.
Ratib Abdulmalik Khalil
Hi,
My CD-ROM does not read the cd when loaded
what could be the problem?.
Ratib Abdulmalik Khalil
poor instalation of CD-ROM try to make sure that the CD-ROM is correctly connected.
Lawrence
One day, dvd drive disappearred from my lenova 3000 G410. Not available in device manager too. What is the problem?
daisy
ive deleted my upperfilters but i don’t seem to have any lowerfilters?
tony
HI, I have aproblem with my laptop toshiba model 2405-S201 in: device manager ( viceo controller and VGA compatible) what can I do.
Atanas
Hello,
I need to ask you about a cable i recently destroyed in my Satellite P105-S9722 :D. It is written MB –> BT on it, as well as … I dont remember the other stuff … like and the DVD is not working, and i am wandering if it is because of this cable.
So, could you pls tell me what MB –> BT means and what this little lcable is /it is like 11 pin, but i am not sure,
Thank you Much!
sushir
hi, i have applied your first method and it works. Thanks bye.
Sofia
I’ve just fixed this issue with my Toshiba Satellite A305. I called the problem in and this is what they guided me to do!
In my case it was a software issue, so here we go!
1) go to http://support.toshiba.com
2) Where the search box is, click ‘Express View’
3) Type in this ID “98080671” and change the drop down menu to “Support Bulletin”
4) Click the search button!
5) “CD / DVD drive missing from ‘My Computer’ (Windows Explorer)” should pop up
6) *note if this will work with your Toshiba model* Follow on-screen directions to download “Toshiba Upper/Lower Limit Repair Tool (RmvFltrs.exe).”
7) After saving, unzip, and run! (it’ll look like the old DOS prompt)
8) Once the DOS prompt pops up, you’ll have to “press any key” to start and “press any key” to exit
9) Restart laptop
10) Check ‘My Computer’ – hallelujah ! it’s there! 🙂
If it’s not there after this, then the tech guy told me that it was a hardware issue, and I’d have to bring it in.
Hope this helps!!
Heather
Hi I have a acer 4720z laptop and my dvd drive has disappeared from my computer tab. it wont read disc and i am stumped i don’t know what to do! any help would be appreciated!
use subject line: computer problem
jenn
I have Toshiba M105 and my dvd drive cannot be found anywhere (My computer, window explorer, device manager, BIOS…etc). It’s acting as if I don’t have the drive. When i put my recovery disc in, the DVD would spin as if it’s trying to read it but nothing would happen after the initial “reading”.
I tried system restore and it tells me that the action that happened to DVD rom is irreversible.
At this point, I really don’t know what to do. I want to reformat my laptop but I can’t do. Please advise. Thanks.
July
My case is a bit unique. I have UMAX ActionBook340T laptop and a bootable Windows 2000 CD. I want to install Windows 2000. If I boot the laptop with this CD, the CD-ROM appears as drice E and the necessary set up information is copied to C for setup to start.
However in the later stages, the system requests for a windows 2000 setup CD to be inserted into E drive (when it is actually in the drive). On attempting to browse, My computer only shows two hard disk patritions C and D with CD-ROM drive missing. What could be wrong in this case?
Jeremy
Hi I’ve had the same problem on my Inspiron B130, and I’ve tried deleting the upper and lower filters, and I’ve tried the firmware download, and the firmware download worked, but the CD drive dissapeared again. So, the next time on the boot menu the option to boot to the CD drive was not there, but then a couple days later it was there, and then the CD drive dissapeared again and now I’m having the same problem with the boot to the CD drive not showing up on the boot menu. So, can somebody tell me why the CD drive keeps dissapearing, and how I can fix that?
Radu
For me it worked the 2nd solution. I had this annoying problem with an HP 6720s but now it seems to be fixed.
I’ll write down the simptoms that the laptop had:
*The drive was disappearing in My Computer and not just there! I tried to install windows several times , but i wasn’t able to do it as the message “Press any key to boot from cd.. ” was not displayed and the laptop was just booting normally from the hdd.
*When the drive wasn’t displayed in “My Computer” , the CPU was used at about 11-14 % even though there was no activity in the background.
*The cursor’s movement wasn’t smooth anymore ; every 1 second the cursor was just getting stuck.
*The sound produced by any program or website (let’s say youtube) was doing the same thing as the mouse’s cursor used to : it was just gettin stuck.
That’s more or less everything. Hope i could help some of you..
Mustafa Qazi
Excellent Post… I downloaded the tool from Microsoft and my problem was fixed. Now I can view my CD Rom.
Many thanks
santhosh
thanks for this link. Gr8 help
Waqas Ahmed
Hello,
I also have HP 6720s and second option also worked for me. i just reset the DVD ROM and now its back in my computer. But i dont know for how long. Lets see and hope for the best.
Regards,
Waqas Ahmed
marc
I dont have drive when I click on my computer
so i am not able to install stuff from CD or dvd disc etc
can you help me ??
I already dwonload driver install detector but does make a difference
have any other ideas?
Joy
It really work for my missing drives after i tried “go with removing the registry entry”.. thanks for the info..^^
Asad
i tried every thing but nothing happen
first option was using before it work but only for 15 or 20 min and now it’s also not working any other solution like first one…..please i can’t watch movies…….lol
cj2600
@ Asad,
It’s possible the DVD drive is failing. It’s hard to tell without testing the laptop with another DVD drive.
You have two options:
1. Replace the internal DVD drive.
2. Buy an external USB DVD drive.
marygold
Thanks so much! The Microsoft fix-it worked! Not sure if removing my cd Creator from computer caused it or if an update. Whatever. Its working better than ever.
lok sunder
my laptop is TOSHIBA SATELLITE L20 model in now dvd drive is not working; when i put cd inside it wont read the cd, when it spining sounds like a motor running how rectify this problem, help me to rectify the problem
cj2600
@ lok sunder,
Try to boot the laptop from a bootable CD or DVD (Windows OS installation disc, Toshiba recovery disc, live Linux CD, etc…)
Can you boot from a CD?
I’m just trying to figure out if your problem is OS related or there is something wrong with the drive itself.
If the laptop will boot from a CD but DVD drive doesn’t work properly in Windows, most likely it’s Windows related issue.
David R.
my disc drive wont eject or start running when I put a disc in it. i’ll hit the eject button and the green light flashes 6 times,but wont open. the little hole next to it where you put the paper clip in,it opens it,but when I put a movie in,it wont even load or play itand still wont eject. I would greatly appreciate it if anyone could help me with the problem. thank you,DAVID
David R.
continued from above:
its a DELL LATITUDE E4300/with windows 7. thank you