Both CD/DVD Drives dissappeared.

Win XP Pro SP-2. I went to use one of my CD/DVD drives and found that both of them have dissappeared from My Computer. I pulled up Control Panel and both drives appear, but with (!) next to each and the message "Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39)." I tried to troubleshoot them with no success. I replaced the following files from another computer with same OS:
cdrom.sys, imapi.sys, redbook.sys in case they were corrupted. Rebooted.
No change. I have just lost both drives for no apparent reason.

I booted up from a spare back-up drive running SP-1 that I had saved, just in case, and both drives worked fine. So problem is not with the drives.

What can be the problem? Thanks for the help.

-Tom Rouse

 

Pete, thanks for the quick reply. Yes, I did mean the Device Driver in the Control Panel. I have done an uninstall and reboot with no success, so I'll try your next suggestion and let you know how it works out. Ohh Ohh. I can't use my XP CD as the drive is not currently working. I wonder if SFC /scannow will bring them back?

Thanks again,
-Tom
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I think you mean Device Manager? Right click on each of the drives in turn > uninstall and reboot. Windows should find them again and load the appropriate drivers.

If this fails to work it would be worth your while running System File Checker ....

Start > Run > type in sfc /scannow note the space and have your XP CD handy. System File Checker will run and exit without any closing dialogue. To see which files. if any, have been replaced look in Event Viewer.

 

Both CD/DVD Drives dissappeared

Pete, your last recommendation solved my problem:

This is not completely relevant, but may be worth a look ....
CD-ROM drive or DVD-ROM drive appears to be missing after you install Windows XP

This was the only solution that worked. Thank you for your help!

-Tom