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Windows no longer recognises or register the CD/DVD drive.

CD/DVD Drive no longer operates in windows
Applies to Windows XP and Vista.
When your CD/DVD drive is able to physically operate (Shows external signs of operation Eg: ejects the tray). However is unable to read or utilise the drive with in the Windows operating system.

Symptoms


CD/DVD drive no longer appears in 'My Computer' or 'Computer'
Error message: Your registry might be corrupted. (Code 19)
Error message: A driver for this device was not required, and has been disabled (Code 32 or Code 31).
Error message: The device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device (Code 31).
Error message: Error Code 39
Windows successfully loaded the device driver for this hardware but cannot find the hardware device. (Code 41)


Causes
Due to corruption of windows registry entries
Which is usually the result of uninstalling a CD/DVD burning program.
It can also occur after randomly after a systems update

Solution


Open the Start menu
Select 'Run' or in the 'Start Search'
Enter "regedit"
Expand the following folders:

HKey_Local_Machine
System
CurrentControlSet
Control
Class
{4D36E965-E325-11­CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

In the contents of this folder you should see at least the two following sub folders
0000
Properties
In those sub-folders you should see files
0000: Driverdate,DriverDateData,DriverDesc etc.
Properties: Driver date etc.
Delete the contents of these folders(if accessible)
Delete the contents of the parent folder {4D36E965-E325-11­CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
Once this is done you should have remaining in these folders "(Default) REG_SZ (value not set)"
Once this is done please Restart the Computer.

Once the computer has re-booted, proceed to 'My Computer' or 'Computer' to find the CD/DVD drive.