This page will provide a solution to a missing CD or DVD drive in Windows XP
 Please backup your registry before attempting the following fix.
 
Symptoms of the problem
•    You cannot access the information on your disk.
•    You cannot see your CD\DVD drive from My Computer
•    Your Device Manager lists your CD\DVD as faulty

You receive any of the following errors
•    The device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device.
•    A driver for this device was not required, and has been disabled
•    Your registry might be corrupted.
 
Step 1: Start Registry Editor
Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK. Registry Editor starts.
 
Step 2: Delete the UpperFilters registry entry
1.    In Registry Editor, expand My Computer, and then expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
2.    Expand SYSTEM, and then expand CurrentControlSet.
3.    Expand Control, and then expand Class.
4.    Under Class, click {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}.
5.    In the right pane (topic area), click UpperFilters.

Note An UpperFilters.bak registry entry may also appear. To delete the UpperFilters registry entry, you must click UpperFilters and not UpperFilters.bak.

6.    On the Edit menu, click Delete.
7.    When you receive the following message, click Yes to confirm the deletion of the UpperFilters registry entry:
Are you sure you want to delete this value?
The UpperFilters registry entry is removed from the {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} registry sub key.

Note Do not exit Registry Editor. You must have this program for the next step.
 
Step 3: Delete the LowerFilters registry entry
1.    In Registry Editor, expand My Computer, and then expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
2.    Expand SYSTEM, and then expand CurrentControlSet.
3.    Expand Control, and then expand Class.
4.    Under Class, click {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}.
5.    In the right pane (topic area), click LowerFilters.

Note A LowerFilters.bak registry entry may also appear. To delete the LowerFilters registry entry, you must click LowerFilters and not LowerFilters.bak.
6.    On the Edit menu, click Delete.
7.    When you receive the following message, click Yes to confirm the deletion of the LowerFilters registry entry:
Are you sure you want to delete this value?
The LowerFilters registry entry is removed from the {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} registry sub key.
8.    Exit Registry Editor.
 
Step 4: Restart the computer
If a CD recording program no longer works after you restart the computer, you must reinstall the CD recording program.