One thing that will help to determine if this is an OS problem is:
1) power down your computer
2) power up your computer
3) When your computer is first booting up (before windows loads) push the drive eject button and see if the drive opens and closes properly, and the lights blink
4) do this periodically throughout the boot process
You may notice that once windows loads a certain amount of its drivers the drive door stops responding, meaning it wont open and close. This means its an OS issue and your drive is fine. May not help your problem, but at least you won't go out and spend money on a new drive!!
good luck!