Solution for recurrent DVD/BD/CD drive does not work problem

Abhishek Ghosh

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Lots of people (including me) suffer from a peculiar problem, I saw people complaining in MS Answers forum, here in this forum and in real life.

Situation:

You are 100% sure that your Optical drive (CD/DVD/BD) is OK, but Windows 7 refuses it to recognize. Sometimes it says it needs a firmware upgrade, sometime only CD are read, not DVDs, sometimes it become a read only drive.
It typically occurs in laptop, though happens with desktop also.
Sometimes, you boot and formatted your laptop / desktop with the DVD, after everything is done nice, it fails to recognize the installation DVD itself!


I tried all the methods available till date, none were satisfactory. The best way was (before I discovered the following method), unintall the drive, unscrew from the bay then doing the reverse. Windows may recognize your old machine as new, as you have changed a hardware and may require activation over phone. Its the best method if, it has already happened.


Solution:

This applies when, you have faced it once and either formatted the HDD or anyhow solved it. There is fair chance it may recur. So, prevention is better than cure.

1. From the BIOS, keep the Optical drive as primary boot device 1, keep HDD in 2.

2. Always keep a DVD RW with folders in the drive (For example: A DVD written with Two or more folders, everything kept inside them, no file remain outside).

3. Boot with it. After wasting few seconds for searching for installer, it will boot from HDD. If you are in hurry, ejecting it will cause to load faster, but, push it after the Windows Starting animation.

Windows 7 will never forget your drive.
 

My Computer

Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
COMPAQ Presario Laptop
OS
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit, Mac OS X 10.6
CPU
Intel Pentium Dual Core @2.0GHz
Motherboard
Compaq Generic
Memory
12GB
Graphics Card(s)
NVIDIA Graphics For Mobile 512MB VRAM
Sound Card
IDT High definition Audio
Monitor(s) Displays
Laptop LCD Display
Screen Resolution
1280*800 Bright View Widescreen
Hard Drives
500 GB Primary Master@7200rpm + 1 TB External HDD
Cooling
Direct ; generic fan
Keyboard
Generic Laptop Keyboard
Mouse
Touch Pad
Internet Speed
3.1 Mbps wireless Broadband
Other Info
Generic Dock
Thanks for posting this solution, nokian73me! I look forward to seeing people report success using it.

Cheers,

Walker
Windows Outreach Team
 

My Computer

Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
HP Pavilion dm3 (netbook) *** 27" iMac (Dual-Boot)
OS
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) *** Windows XP SP3 (32-bit), OSX 10.6
CPU
AMD Athlon Neo X2 1.6GHz *** Intel Core i7 Quad Core 2.8GHz
Memory
4.00 GB *** 4.00 GB
Graphics Card(s)
ATI Radeon HD 3200, 384MB *** ATI Radeon HD 4850, 1GB
Sound Card
ATI High Definition Audio *** ATI High Definition Audio
Monitor(s) Displays
LG Flatron W2053TX
Screen Resolution
1600 x 900 (monitor), 1266 x 768 (laptop) *** 2560 x 1440
Hard Drives
300 GB SATA (internal), 500 GB HP SimpleSave (external) *** 1 TB SATA (internal), 160 GB LaCie (external)
Mouse
Logitech Cordless Optical Mouse for Notebooks
Internet Speed
Broadband
An outstanding post. The solution should help a lot of folks.
 

My Computer

Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Home built
OS
Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit
CPU
Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz
Motherboard
ASUS P4P800-VM Motherboard Chipset: Intel 865G + ICH5
Memory
2.50 GB RAM
Graphics Card(s)
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS
Sound Card
SoundMax Integrated Digital Audio (Chip)
Monitor(s) Displays
ViewSonic VX 1962 wm
Screen Resolution
1680 X 1050
Hard Drives
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 80 GB
ST380215A ATA Device 18.6 GB
Western Digital "My Book" external hard drive 750 GB
Cooling
Fan based
Keyboard
Microsoft Comfort Curve Keyboard 2000 v10 USB
Mouse
Logitec optic USB
Internet Speed
3.01 Mb/s download 0.64 Mb/s upload
@WalkerA WinTeam , Carl thank you everyone.
 

My Computer

Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
COMPAQ Presario Laptop
OS
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit, Mac OS X 10.6
CPU
Intel Pentium Dual Core @2.0GHz
Motherboard
Compaq Generic
Memory
12GB
Graphics Card(s)
NVIDIA Graphics For Mobile 512MB VRAM
Sound Card
IDT High definition Audio
Monitor(s) Displays
Laptop LCD Display
Screen Resolution
1280*800 Bright View Widescreen
Hard Drives
500 GB Primary Master@7200rpm + 1 TB External HDD
Cooling
Direct ; generic fan
Keyboard
Generic Laptop Keyboard
Mouse
Touch Pad
Internet Speed
3.1 Mbps wireless Broadband
Other Info
Generic Dock
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