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mist109

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my CD-RW and DVD drives don't work unless I system restore

Hi,
My computer does not recognize my cd-rw and dvd drives. In device manager, they have the highlighted exclamation mark. I have tried to delete the drives and reboot, but it didn't work. The only solution I have found so far is to system restore, but then the drives only work until the next day or so. I haven't moved the computer recently, the only changes I can think of may be installing norton, uninstalling adaptec easy-cd creator, and windows and mcafee updates. I am not very familiar with computers. Please help me with this problem. Thanks.
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Juliejayne

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CD and DVD IDE devices do not require any special drivers since they are IDE.

I would get the latest patches, and do a virus scan since some of them do affect IDE devices.

What Windows are you using ?



You may need a free web based antivirus, since newer viruses disable the local antivirus program !

http://housecall.antivirus.com/pc_housecall/

Norton Web Services  
Go to this page and click on Scan for Viruses
http://security2.norton.com/ssc/vc_about.asp?langid=us&venid=sym&plfid=22&pkj=RKNYPJUIYCZRWEJGSSK

http://www.pcpitstop.com/pcpitstop/diskhealth.asp  remote diagnostics free web antivirus free antivirus

It needs to download a few file so be patient.

   I hope this helps
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mist109

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I wasn't supposed to accept an answer yet, was I?
Thank you for all your help. What kind of patches do you mean? I have Windows XP (which was upgraded from ME).  

Those were some great links you gave me sysexpert! My computer had 3 viruses, but they were not ones that affected my drives. They still aren't working.
"CD and DVD IDE devices do not require any special drivers since they are IDE."

True, but even the basic drivers could have been corrupted and may need to be re-installed.  If the computer had 3 Viruses, then many files could have been damaged.  So I would suggest that you do a re-install of your OS. With XP you can do a repair install.
Fr XPtry
from a DOS window

sfc /scannow

This should fix most driver issues.

You may need your original XP CD as some point, if it needs files.

also

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q315341

Visual aid to the above procedure
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm

Click on How To Repair Windows XP by Reinstalling  


 I hope this helps !