# Win2K and the Disappearing CD-R/RW Drive

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win2k-and-the-disappearing-cd-r-rw-drive/117596>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 6, 2002, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win2k-and-the-disappearing-cd-r-rw-drive/117596 "2002-07-06T04:45:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2002, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win2k-and-the-disappearing-cd-r-rw-drive/117596/1 "2002-07-06T04:45:51Z")

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Okay, Win2K has suddenly decided that my CD-R/RW drive no longer exists. Am I right in thinking the drive has died (or is on its last spins)? I rebooted the machine and the drive reappeared, but then disappeared. I didn’t make any significant software changes prior to it occuring, so I don’t think that its a software problem. The drive was acting flaky before this, however. (It’s had trouble reading/burning disks recently.) Any guesses, folks?

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**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2002, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win2k-and-the-disappearing-cd-r-rw-drive/117596/2 "2002-07-06T09:37:13Z")

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Hm, I know SPOOFE had a similar problem with WinXP a couple of weeks ago, so you might want to try searching for that in GQ.

I had a similar problem in Win2K, but it was one of those “don’t do this at midnight on a Tuesday night in July if the date is a prime number and a green bird is singing outside your window” type of thing that involved, IIRC, the uninstallation of CD Creator 5, Nero (or some other CD burning software) and some other BS.

I also think I got an error 31 in my device manager.

Whatever it is, you might want to go poking around at [http://support.microsoft.com/](http://support.microsoft.com/). The knowledge base is almost surprisingly helpful at times. Good luck.

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**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2002, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win2k-and-the-disappearing-cd-r-rw-drive/117596/3 "2002-07-06T10:24:41Z")

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True, KK, I had that same problem. One day, the drive is there, happy as can be… the next, it was gone. We tried replacing the drives with brand new ones with no effect. Ultimately, the only thing that could solve it was re-installing everything.

The only real glitch I’ve found in XP. Still confuses the hell out of me.