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agreed with above, can be bad connection or bad drive<br />
or even &nbsp;a bad mobo (let's hope not)
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After doing more research it looks like this is the case. &nbsp;Quite a few Portege R500 owners have had a similar problem and it appears to be a faulty cable. &nbsp;So i need to send it in for repair - great fun!<br />
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Thanks for the help.
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I am running Vista on a Toshiba Portege R500 and have lost my DVD Drive. &nbsp;It will not show up in either Explorer or Device Manager. &nbsp;I have run the solution to delete the Upper and Lower filters in the registry to no avail. &nbsp;When I boot to the Bios, I do not see the DVD Drive represented there either. &nbsp;The drive spins and operates (open, flashing lights ect) normally other than that.
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I am running Vista on a Toshiba Portege R500 and have lost my DVD Drive.  It will not show up in either Explorer or Device Manager.  I have run the solution to delete the Upper and Lower filters in the registry to no avail.  When I boot to the Bios, I do not see the DVD Drive represented there either.  The drive spins and operates (open, flashing lights ect) normally other than that.

DVD-Drive not showing up in Explorer or Device Manager - Upper and Lower Filter solution not working

A laptop or notebook is a portable personal computer with a clamshell form factor, suitable for mobile use. Although originally there was a distinction between laptops and notebooks, the former being bigger and heavier than the latter, there is often no longer any difference. Laptops are commonly used in a variety of settings, such as at work, in education, and for personal multimedia. A laptop combines the components, inputs, outputs and capabilities of a desktop computer, including the display screen, speakers, a keyboard, and pointing devices (such as a touchpad or trackpad) into a single unit. The device can be powered either from a rechargeable battery or by mains electricity from an AC adapter.

Laptops Notebooks

Windows Vista is an operating system created by Microsoft as the successor to Windows XP. It was intended for PCs, workstations and laptops, and shares the same code base as its successor, Windows 7. New features included an updated graphical user interface (GUI) and visual style dubbed Aero, a new search component called Windows Search, redesigned networking, audio, print and display subsystems, and new multimedia tools. Vista aimed to increase the level of communication between machines on a home network, using peer-to-peer technology to simplify sharing files and media between computers and devices. Windows Vista included version 3.0 of the .NET Framework, allowing software developers to write applications without traditional Windows APIs.

Windows Vista

The Microsoft Legacy Operating System topic includes legacy versions of Microsoft operating systems prior to Windows 2000: All versions of MS-DOS and other versions developed for specific manufacturers and Windows 3/3.1, Windows 95 and Windows 98, plus any other Windows-related versions, and Windows Mobile.