Wednesday 7 November 2012

DVD Drive not showing up in Windows 8

Let me say firstly that I am enjoying Microsoft Windows 8 Pro.  Sure, the extra mouse click and the lack of synchronization of the browser between the Desktop view and the "metro" view is a pain in the neck, but i'm getting along just fine (and you may too after a while).

Now for the problem.  When I installed Microsoft Windows 8 Pro on my desktop a few days ago I used the optical drive (DVD-RW) to do so, only to realize now that the drive is no longer showing up in My Computer (did not notice that before this morning).

I checked the Device Manager and realized that the drive was not even registered there.  I re-scanned the system for new hardware, but to no avail.  Finally (as a last resort) I swapped out the drive for a different one but still the problem remained.  It was only after a bit of "googling" I was able to find a solution.

It appears as though the problem originates from the Registry and so to get the drive showing again involves a small edit being done.  So here goes:
  1. From the Start Screen (Metro Screen) type CMD
  2. Right mouse click on the Command Prompt (cmd) when it shows up (Top left corner of screen)
  3. At the bottom of the screen choose Run as administrator from the options listed
  4. Copy and paste the following command into the Command Promptreg.exe add "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi\Controller0" /f /v EnumDevice1 /t REG_DWORD /d 0x00000001
  5. Hit Enter on your keyboard
  6. Reboot your computer
This method worked for me.  Please let me know if it worked for you as well in the comment section.

4 comments:

  1. I never had this problem in Windows 7 or any of the earlier versions, but do let me know if the script fixes your problem. If it fixes your Win 7 problem then I will create a batch file to cut back on the amount of steps needed to apply the fix.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks dude this quick fix also worked for me!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Great. My new website is at www.jervisdabreo.com/thetechcorner
      I'm no longer updating this site. Cheers.

      Delete

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