Windows 7 - DVD Drive - detected, but can't read or write

Hi, I've searched the forums for dvd drive issues, but the majority of them are about not being able to see them.

My problem is that I can see the drive, but I cannot read any discs or burn. The drive is visible in the Bios, and Device Manager. The drive is a Lite-On LH20A1L ATA. The firmware is updated to the latest, which only addressed media compatibility. In device manager I've already tried updating the driver, but Windows says it already at the latest.

I have the latest Daemon-tools installed (SPTD 1.62 I think), and the latest ImgBurn.

When I try to read a disc, I see the HDD light click fully, and the Green status bar in the location bar takes forever to finish or loops.

When insert blank media into the drive when I'm about to burn in ImgBurn, the HDD light does the same thing, and ImgBurn will not even detect the media.

Also if it matters, this is the same drive used to install my Windows 7 64bit upgrade. I did a clean install though. But the installation took a long time (few hours).

Can you boot from the DVD drive with say, the Windows 7 install disc or some other bootable media?

Yes I was just able to boot to my Win 7 disc. I suspect it may be Daemon tools, as this is the only PC I have with this problem and with Daemon installed.

If I uninstall Daemon, will that remove SPTD 1.62 from my PC?

Ok, that's good news, it indicates that it's a software/driver issue.
You might not need to uninstall DT just yet...

Got to your device manager - CD/DVD Drives right click your drive and uninstall it, then reboot. Windows 7 will re-install your device drivers.
Sometimes drivers will get messed up by other software installation, this may fix it.

I just tried it, still same problem. I even tried removing the second HDD (IDE) which gave problems in my earlier attempts at installing Windows 7...

What's weird is that the HDD light is on, but the PC isn't frozen and I don't actually hear the HDD clicking that much.

Could it be that the drive is just not compatible with Windows 7? Might need a new drive.

There are lots of posts about CD/DVD drives giving up the ghost.

The forum could do with a sticky that shortlists the models seemingly effected and any workarounds, firmware links, etc.

It could also help to identify common factors like particular controllers/chipsets.

Have you changed any settings in bios? (other than boot order) If so, can you reboot, enter setup and reset to defaults, then only change the settings that you know are necessary.
If you haven't changed anything, then please go to control panel, administrative tools, event viewer. Check in System for red exclamation marks and yellow warnings at around the last time you tried to open/burn a disc.

I don't think it would be a compatiblity issue, generally if it's in bios and recognised in device manager it will run ok.

There is also the possibility that the drive is just dead, but it's worth trying a few options before forking out for a replacement

Lastly, try uninstalling DT, testing the drive, then IMGBurn and re-test. If that doesn't work... I'd start looking for a spare drive to test

I have the same version of DT as you installed, but I'm running CDBurnerXP instead - only because I had the install file handy when I installed Windows 7. I haven't had a

I've tried resetting to fail-safe settings in the bios, and the problem still persists.

I've also tried uninstalling Daemon Tools and SPTD 1.62. To uninstall SPTD I had to download/run its installer. Still has the same problem though so it wasn't Daemon. The drive was able to boot my Windows 7 Pro disk, which leads me to believe the drive isn't dead, just not compatible.

On my brother's PC, his Lite-On drive works perfectly...so I'm thinking again this model is not compatible within Windows 7

Did it work right after you installed Windows 7 the first time??