[LordofLowLight]

A few months ago, my CDRW drive decided to die. All well and good, as I still had my DVD drive to do things. But now my DVD drive has decided to die as well and now I can't even find them on the My Computer menu. They don't show up in the device manager either. I just updated and scanned with AVG, so I'm fairly certain it's not a virus. I can't find them in hardware profiles either. What could be causing this?

 

[Mental_Myopia]

What drives and motherboard are you using? It says you've got Windows XP, is that correct?

First, check the IDE and power cables to your drives. I've accidentally knocked them off or loosened them just enough by accident to keep CD drives from functioning. Make sure everything is connected well.

Second, go into your BIOS to make sure BIOS is detecting your drives. Have them set as Autotype, or better yet set them as CD-ROM drives in your BIOS. If the BIOS can't detect the drives, then there's definitely a bad connection to your drives or something along those lines.

More information about your system should help us find other possible solutions.

 

[JerryWMac]

Observation:
In the past on certain Motherboards, and CDR's CDRW's I have seen that they will not work, if they are both on same cable, or will not work well if they are on the same cable.
place the CDR as slave ribbon 1, then the DVD as slave ribbon 2.

As she said, it is possible they may have accidentally become slightly disconnected, does not take much, but can happen.

In changing them around, this disconnects them and firmly reconnects them as possibly needed.

Also at same time disconnect and reconnect firmly the ribbon cables from the motherboard.