Both of my disc read/write drives simultaneously vanished. Nothing new has been installed, with the exception of WinXP updates. I turned on my computer and my D: and E: drives were completely gone. Device manager says that the drivers are properly installed, but the devices are not connected. I have attempted the following: - Checking for loose wires. - Uninstalling all drivers and restarting computer. Restarted PC and it detected drives, installed drivers, and still no drives appear. - Drive doors still open and close using eject button, but no discs will read. - Attempted to do a system restore to a month ago. Still no drive icons. - Updating drivers. Windows is retarded and doesn't understand how to do this without me holding it's hand the entire time. Any ideas?

First thing to do is to watch the POST screens at start up to determine if the drives are being configured in the BIOS. If they are then the issue is with Windows. If not, then it is a hardware issue. IF hardware the most likely would be the cable, assuming both oar on the same cable. Another possibility would be the IDE controller the cable is plugged into has failed or is somehow disabled. That setting is in the BIOS screens. Post back with results of POST screens.

BIOS says the following: IDE Config IDE Controller [Both] Hard Disk Pre-Delay [Disabled] PCI IDE Bus Master [Enabled] Primary IDE Master [Maxtor 6200P0] Primary IDE Slave [Not Installed] Secondary IDE Master [HL-DT-ST DVDROM GMA-] Secondary IDE Slave [Lite-0A LTR4296S]

I said to watch the POST screens during the boot up process. Reading the configuration in the BIOS is not the same thing.