[SOLVED] How do I get my optical drive to work on Windows 10 ?

[ajclawson]

How do I get my optical drive to work in Windows 10 ?

It's happened more than once. After some hardware changes (IDR), it started working and worked for about a week. After unplugging most of my drives to force my PC to boot from a USB drive (that's a different problem that I fixed) and some other changes that I don't remember the drive worked again for about another week. After ripping some discs, it stopped. Like, I ripped a disc, then immediately put in another and it just quit recognizing media. I put the drive on a SATA to USB adapter and... nothing. I know it's not the drive. I have another, identical, drive. It also doesn't work.

The issue is that it doesn't recognize that there's a disc in it. BIOS sees the drive. Windows sees the drive. ImgBurn sees the drive.

I used a spare drive to create a new Windows installation and it didn't solve the issue.

Also, I can't boot from it, so I'm not sure if it's not a Windows thing, or if that's unrelated.

I'm including my Windows version if that helps: 10.0.19045 Build 19045

Blu-ray drive(s) is(are): HL-DT-ST BD-RE WH12LS30 firmware is updated, though I couldn't update it while non-functional, and I forgot to update it the last time it was working

I've tried every "fix" here:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...ng-in-my/a135b493-f383-4efa-92b5-328af5f1d1f2

Even this person, who has/had an identical issue gave up:
https://www.windows11forums.com/threads/optical-drive-not-shown.3502/

Any ideas?

 

[Aeacus]

Not many folks nowadays use ODD. I'm one of the few who still has working ODD in their system, running Win10. Albeit, mine is DVD and not Blu-Ray as yours is. Actually, i have two Win10 systems with ODD plugged in to them.

Even this person, who has/had an identical issue gave up:
https://www.windows11forums.com/threads/optical-drive-not-shown.3502/

IF you have the very same issue as that person had, then there isn't an actual issue, but instead lack of convenience.

Person in that topic had this convenience issue:

Clicking on "This PC" does show it in the right pane but it would be nice if it would also show in the left pane with its drive letter.

Meaning, that ODD did show up under "This PC" but that person wanted ODD to show up on the left navigation panel as well.
Thing is, left navigation panel doesn't show any devices with removable storage, which ODD is. It only shows Hard Disk Drives (HDD and SSD included). ODD, FDD, USB thumb drives, card reader etc, everything that has removable media, doesn't show up in the quick navigation panel.

The issue is that it doesn't recognize that there's a disc in it.

I know it's not the drive. I have another, identical, drive. It also doesn't work.

Then the disc itself is bad.

Rather than trying to get ripped disc to show up, take a legit disc (e.g audio CD/DVD/Blu-Ray) and plop it in. If it shows up, all is in working order.

From my days of burning discs (mostly audio), there were some of the discs that failed to operate as soon as burning process was complete. Then, there were ripped discs that stopped working over time. E.g didn't work in my car's CD player anymore but did work in PC's ODD. Until disc gave up the ghost for good and didn't work in any ODD anymore. So, ended up burning another disc. Also, i had to replace ODDs quite often as well, since they stopped operating.

Overall, the least durable PC hardware out there is ODD. Heck, even FDD is far more durable despite their age.

Nowadays, i haven't used my ODD for a long time (despite i still having several empty discs, ready to burn + burning software installed). Since USB thumb drive effectively replaced everything ODD and discs could do, while having far higher capacity, smaller footprint (compact size) and much cheaper price per GB.

I used a spare drive to create a new Windows installation and it didn't solve the issue.

Also, I can't boot from it, so I'm not sure if it's not a Windows thing, or if that's unrelated.

Use USB thumb drive to create installation media.
Guide for Win10: https://forums.tomshardware.com/faq/windows-10-clean-install-tutorial.3170366/

Older Win installation media did boot from CD/DVD. That up to Win7. Win10/11 does have DVD as installation media as well, but those are strictly OEM installations. Also, you can't create Win10/11 installation media yourself on disc by burning it. The disc will not be bootable.

 

[ajclawson]

None of the several discs that I've inserted are bad. The drive simply refuses to recognize that a disc has been inserted.
Also, you don't seem to know much about what you're posting, here. I've been working with optical media for over 30 years and this is the first issue I've had.

 

[Aeacus]

The drive simply refuses to recognize that a disc has been inserted.

Either it is ODD or the disc itself. Since the two are needed to see content on the disc.

You could try using 2nd PC and look if the data on disc shows up in there as well. If not, process of elimination says ODD or disc.

Also, you don't seem to know much about what you're posting, here. I've been working with optical media for over 30 years and this is the first issue I've had.

I've also worked with optical discs for many years and i've seen plethora of issues with them. Heck, i started out with 5.25" floppy disks. Do you know what those are?

In any of event, if you insist that your ripped disc must work (despite it not working) and absolutely refuse to entertain the idea that ODDs and discs do fail (since you haven't had any failures thus far), there's nothing i can do to help you.

 

[ajclawson]

I've also worked with optical discs for many years and i've seen plethora of issues with them. Heck, i started out with 5.25" floppy disks. Do you know what those are?

cute
I also wish you'd read the OP

 

[Eximo]

Does the drive pick up the disc? Sensors inside the drive can fail, motors and belts can fail. Gears get stripped. Could be anything.

 

[ajclawson]

Does the drive pick up the disc? Sensors inside the drive can fail, motors and belts can fail. Gears get stripped. Could be anything.

It's definitely not mechanical.

 

[ajclawson]

Like I said, previously, I have two identical drives that both act this way. Neither are connected at the same time.

 

[Nice Nicer]

Some motherboards have strange configurations for the sata ports. I have a motherboard from HP, that only detects blu ray drives when they are connected to certain ports ( 1 and 2 to be precise, 4 ports in total ). Have you tried different sata ports on your mainboard? Did you check the cable?
You might have to check your manual for the mainboard and the drive as well.
Definitely try all sata ports.

 

[ajclawson]

The current drive is plugged into a sata6 (grey) and has worked there more than once.

 

[Nice Nicer]

The current drive is plugged into a sata6 (grey) and has worked there more than once.

Yes, but that doesn´t mean that the port isn´t the reason. Even if it used to work at some point, your configuration might have changed.

After unplugging most of my drives to force my PC to boot from a USB drive (that's a different problem that I fixed) and some other changes that I don't remember the drive worked again for about another week.

I don´t think it´s the type of port that´s causing the issue. But in my previously mentioned example of the HP mobo it had something to do with priorization (chronology ?) of the ports in the BIOS or something like that. I can´t really explain the exact reasoning behind this. But i had a similar problem and simply pluging the sata cable into a different port fixed it.

 

[ajclawson]

Yes, but that doesn´t mean that the port isn´t the reason. Even if it used to work at some point, your configuration might have changed.



I don´t think it´s the type of port that´s causing the issue. But in my previously mentioned example of the HP mobo it had something to do with priorization (chronology ?) of the ports in the BIOS or something like that. I can´t really explain the exact reasoning behind this. But i had a similar problem and simply pluging the sata cable into a different port fixed it.

Your use of crypt.ography isn't helping. My mobo isn't HP, it's ASUS I also mentioned that BIOS wasn't the issue.

 

[Nice Nicer]

My mobo isn't HP, it's ASUS

I´m just naming an example (!) for a mainboard, that only accepted a blu ray drive when it was plugged into a specific SATA port.

Your use of crypt.ography isn't helping.

My english is just a bit average, i´m not trying to confuse you.

 

[Misgar]

Blu-ray drive(s) is(are): HL-DT-ST BD-RE WH12LS30 firmware is updated

Was the firmware perhaps some strange LibreDrive variant, compatible with MakeMKV and 4K ripping?

What media are you using. I'm currently on Verbatim with my four Blu-ray writers, all under Windows 10.

Is it possible your problem with both optical drives not being recognised might be ATAPI related?
https://www.lenovo.com/in/en/glossary/what-is-atapi/

Is your BIOS set to UEFI-only or UEFI + CSM?

I ripped a disc, then immediately put in another and it just quit recognizing media.

If the drive is quite old, it might be worth cleaning the lens on the laser head assembly.

In addition, if the laser has "dimmed" with age, you could tweak one of the tiny pots on the head pcb to increase the 'brightness'. Take care, the other pot might be 'focus'. Do NOT stare directly into the laser when the drive is powered up.

With the cover removed, you can watch the carriage slide back and forth and the laser move up and down, trying to focus when no disc is inserted. You might need to apply some white Lithium grease to the guide rails and gears.

Blu-ray drives don't work perfectly forever, which is why I buy a new one every 3 years, but I do have at least 20 old DVD and CD writers that mostly work. The ones that have died are in a big pile. My first two optical drives back in 1995 were SCSI interface.

Have you posted your problem on the Blu-ray forum? You'll probably find more experts there.
https://forum.blu-ray.com/

 

[COLGeek]

What are the complete specs for this system (make/model of ALL installed components)? In particular, how many SATA devices are attached to the motherboard and how many m.2 SSDs (if using any at all).

 

[ajclawson]

What media are you using. I'm currently on Verbatim with my four Blu-ray writers, all under Windows 10.

Production DVDs and Blu-rays, CD-RW, DVD-R, any type.

Is it possible your problem with both optical drives not being recognised might be ATAPI related?
https://www.lenovo.com/in/en/glossary/what-is-atapi/

I don't believe so. I 've tried everything ATAPI related that I could find.

Is your BIOS set to UEFI-only or UEFI + CSM?

UEFI only. My BIOS doesn't have a CSM setting.

If the drive is quite old, it might be worth cleaning the lens on the laser head assembly.

In addition, if the laser has "dimmed" with age, you could tweak one of the tiny pots on the head pcb to increase the 'brightness'. Take care, the other pot might be 'focus'. Do NOT stare directly into the laser when the drive is powered up.

With the cover removed, you can watch the carriage slide back and forth and the laser move up and down, trying to focus when no disc is inserted. You might need to apply some white Lithium grease to the guide rails and gears.

Blu-ray drives don't work perfectly forever, which is why I buy a new one every 3 years, but I do have at least 20 old DVD and CD writers that mostly work. The ones that have died are in a big pile. My first two optical drives back in 1995 were SCSI interface.

I'm quite sure this isn't the issue. Like I stated above, I have a second, identical, drive that does the same thing.

Have you posted your problem on the Blu-ray forum? You'll probably find more experts there.
https://forum.blu-ray.com/

If no one is able to figure this out, here, I will do that. Thank you.

 

[ajclawson]

What are the complete specs for this system (make/model of ALL installed components)? In particular, how many SATA devices are attached to the motherboard and how many m.2 SSDs (if using any at all).

BaseBoard Manufacturer ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
BaseBoard Product P8Z77-V
BaseBoard Version Rev 1.xx
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3570K CPU @ 3.40GHz 3.40 GHz
16GB RAM
500GB SATA SSD (boot drive)
2TB HDD
14TB HDD
1TB Intel m.2 mounted via an SSD to PCI-E 16x adapter (there is no onboard and my PC can't boot from it; it's just storage.)
and
Drive H:
Description CD-ROM Drive
Media Loaded No
Media Type DVD Writer
Name HL-DT-ST BD-RE WH12LS30
Manufacturer (Standard CD-ROM drives)
Status OK
Transfer Rate -1.00 kbytes/sec
SCSI Target ID 0
PNP Device ID SCSI\CDROM&VEN_HL-DT-ST&PROD_BD-RE__WH12LS30\4&15828421&4&010000
Driver C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\CDROM.SYS (10.0.19041.4355, 171.50 KB (175,616 bytes), 11/16/2024 10:33 PM)

Note that there is a disc in the drive.

IDR the make of the other drives, but a total of 4 SATA drives and the NVMe.

Please let me know if you need more specs.

 

[VizzieTheViz]

Maybe boot from a Linux usb-stick and see if the ODD works to determine if it is a windows issue or a hardware issue?

You’d have to be really unlucky to have two ODD’s be defective at once, but if possible you could try one in another pc just to narrow things down.

 

[Misgar]

UEFI only. My BIOS doesn't have a CSM setting.

I've checked the P8Z77-V user guide and in section 3.7, it mentions 'UEFI' and 'Legacy' booting. I believe Legacy and CSM are essentially the same, just different names.

I know you've been successful writing discs with your current BIOS settings, but sometimes enabling Legacy in addition to UEFI makes hardware work.

In my case, it's old LSI SAS HBA cards. If the mobo BIOS is set to 'UEFI only', I don't always see the message from the Option ROM on the SAS controller at startup, so I can't configure RAID.

I doubt that setting your BIOS to 'UEFI and Legacy' will make any difference, but it's worth a shot.

BaseBoard Product P8Z77-V

I note your mobo has three different SATA controllers listed in the guide on page 2-3:

8. Asmedia® Serial ATA 6.0 Gb/s connectors, (7-pin SATA6G_E1/E2 [navy blue]), 2-22
9. Intel® Z77 Serial ATA 6.0 Gb/s connectors, (7-pin SATA6G_1/2 [gray]), 2-20
10. Intel® Z77 Serial ATA 3.0 Gb/s connectors, (7-pin SATA3G_3–6 [blue]), 2-21

I'm writing this on a machine with a similar mobo (Asus Z87-Plus & i7-4770K) with eight SATA ports, but unlike your mobo, I only have two SATA controllers, one of which is Asmedia.

10. Intel® Z87 Serial ATA 6.0 Gb/s connectors, (7-pin SATA6G_1-6 [yellow]), 1-34
11. ASMedia® Serial ATA 6.0 Gb/s connectors, (7-pin SATA6G_E12 [dark brown]), 1-35

With three different SATA controllers, you have a wonderful mix of possibiities and potential problems. I'm sure you've tried all combinations, but it might be worth further research.

I stopped using four SATA ports on an older Phenom 965 system because I couldn't find suitable Windows 10 drivers for the Silicon Image Sil3114 SATA chipsets. They work fine under XP and 7, but not under 10. I ended up fitting a couple of old SATA1 (1.5Gb/s) PCI cards (not PCIe) to replace the Sil3114s.

Another feature of the old Phenom BIOS is the ability to disable AHCI on two of the SATA ports (which allows me to boot up an old hard disk with Windows XP).
https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000127508/difference-between-ahci-and-sata

If your drives are not visible, you might be using the wrong SATA ports, or have the wrong setting in the BIOS, or have a driver issue.

If your optical media is sometimes visible and sometimes invisible, it's more likely to be a hardware/firmware/media issue.

I settled on Verbatim media many years ago but I know they source their discs from different places. Some discs from other manufacturers didn't work well in my drives, or they showed lots of errors near the end when tested after burning.

If you want to read in depth tests of optical drives and Blu-ray media up to 100GB, check out Gough Lui's web site in Australia. He visits Japan and buys optical media to test at home. You'll probably find a report on your media there.
https://goughlui.com/2024/10/21/experimenting-with-bdxl-part-1-the-media/
https://goughlui.com/2024/10/27/experimenting-with-bdxl-part-2-burning-some-discs/
https://goughlui.com/2024/10/27/exp...quality-scanning-gone-wrong-ft-tsst-se-506cb/
https://goughlui.com/2025/03/02/opt...tim-dvdr-dl-ft-burnermax-cine-r-victor-dvd-r/

Don't discount the fact that both your optical drives may be on their way out, but an good test would be to install them in a completely different computer.

As I said earlier, I buy new optical drives every few years, each time I build a new PC. I stlll use audio CDs in the car and burn 4K/UHD videos from my GoPro to 25GB Blu-ray for the player. It saves using up space on the hard disk in my media PC under the TV and single layer optical discs are cheap.

If you get stuck, I could take the side off this PC and see which port the Pioneer BDR-208M drive is connected, but our motherboards are different (Z77 vs Z87) so it might not help.

 

[MJS WARLORD]

I have joined this post quite late on so dont know if any of what i am typing is relevant to you.

Do you hear the cd/dvd motor kick in for a few seconds every time you turn your pc on.

Have you by any chance changed the brand of disc you are using ..... many years ago before i had any flash drives i wasted a lot of money on blank discs because certain brand names ( not format type ) would not work on my pc... i also had instances where a few discs in a pack of 20 would not do anything.

Turn up the sound and see if you can hear a bass note type sound. If you can, click on control panel and open device manager. You might see a yellow triangle at the side of the cd/dvd entry , right click on it and click uninstall. When you do a restart they will reload themselves and work properly.

I found this in a folder from many years ago ... dont know if it will help you.

Sometimes when you uninstall Norton antivirus software or some other programs weird things happen such as the dvd/cd drive in "my computer" is no longer visible so you will be unable to install anymore software. This is how to solve the problem.

Note each line means you are opening another folder.

Type regedit into the search box at the bottom left of your desktop.

Click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

CurrentControlSet

Set

Control

Class

You will now see a massive list of folders, you need to find the following one.

4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318

Click on it to open it and another panel will appear on the right side of the screen.

You should see upper filters, lower filters or both in a list.

Right click on them to delete them, close the whole page and do a restart. After doing a restart click on "my computer" and your dvd/cd drive should be listed.

 

[ajclawson]

I've checked the P8Z77-V user guide and in section 3.7, it mentions 'UEFI' and 'Legacy' booting. I believe Legacy and CSM are essentially the same, just different names.

I know you've been successful writing discs with your current BIOS settings, but sometimes enabling Legacy in addition to UEFI makes hardware work.

In my case, it's old LSI SAS HBA cards. If the mobo BIOS is set to 'UEFI only', I don't always see the message from the Option ROM on the SAS controller at startup, so I can't configure RAID.

Actually, I checked my BIOS and it does have CSM. Under those settings it's set to UEFI and opROM.
Also, SATA mode has 4 options: Disable, IDE, ACHI and RAID. I keep it on ACHI and there's no option for adding RAID with it. Excuse my ignorance if this isn't how it works.

If your optical media is sometimes visible and sometimes invisible, it's more likely to be a hardware/firmware/media issue.

I settled on Verbatim media many years ago but I know they source their discs from different places. Some discs from other manufacturers didn't work well in my drives, or they showed lots of errors near the end when tested after burning.

It's not the media. The drives don't recognize that there is any media once loaded, no matter the type.

 

[ajclawson]

Do you hear the cd/dvd motor kick in for a few seconds every time you turn your pc on.

Yes. The light flashes and I can hear it attempting to find a disc.

Turn up the sound and see if you can hear a bass note type sound. If you can, click on control panel and open device manager. You might see a yellow triangle at the side of the cd/dvd entry , right click on it and click uninstall. When you do a restart they will reload themselves and work properly.

There are no warnings on any of my devices. One of the first things I checked.

Sometimes when you uninstall Norton antivirus software or some other programs weird things happen such as the dvd/cd drive in "my computer" is no longer visible so you will be unable to install anymore software. This is how to solve the problem.

Note each line means you are opening another folder.

Type regedit into the search box at the bottom left of your desktop.

Click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

CurrentControlSet

Set

Control

Class

You will now see a massive list of folders, you need to find the following one.

4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318

Click on it to open it and another panel will appear on the right side of the screen.

You should see upper filters, lower filters or both in a list.

Right click on them to delete them, close the whole page and do a restart. After doing a restart click on "my computer" and your dvd/cd drive should be listed.

I already did this, it's the first link in my original post.

 

[Misgar]

Also, SATA mode has 4 options: Disable, IDE, ACHI and RAID. I keep it on ACHI and there's no option for adding RAID with it. Excuse my ignorance if this isn't how it works.

I've found IDE, AHCI and RAID in section 3.5.3 of the manual under SATA Configuration. It's not entirely clear if this covers all three of your SATA controllers (chipsets). If so, you won't be able to enable different settings for individual SATA controllers.

The norm for most people is AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface). It's effectively a go-faster enhanced version of bog standard SATA:
https://windowsreport.com/ahci-mode/

If you switch to anything else (IDE or RAID) your Windows disk will probably fail to boot up.

IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) also known as Parallel ATA refers back to old hardware when disk drives were connected with wide ribbon cables, e.g. 40-way for hard disks/CDROM drives and 34-way for floppy disk drives. You don't have either of these legacy IDE ports on your motherboard, but the control technology persisted with the introduction of SATA (Serial ATA).

I leave the BIOS set to IDE in old PCs with Windows XP hard disks, because I can't be bothered to slipstream the relevant drivers into the Windows XP DVD, or install them at a later date. Bog standard Windows XP may not install if the BIOS is set to AHCI.

As for RAID (Redundant Array of Independant Disks) you're probably not going to set up an array of several disk drives (and you're best advised to avoid RAID if you don't appreciate the negative aspects of the technology).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID
Setting the BIOS to RAID will probably stop your Windows drive from booting up.

To sum up, AHCI is the default setting and should work fine with your optical drives, unless they came out of Noah's Ark.

Forgive me if I can't be bothered to wade back through all these posts, but have you checked if there are any yellow warning triangles in Device Manager under 'Disk drives' against each instance of an optical drive. This would imply a driver has failed to load.

Given you have three different SATA controllers, it's worth trying the optical drive on each controller in turn, then checking Device Manager and finally loading an optical disc. Best bet is to insert a commercial pre-recorded DVD (movie) or Audio CD. This should avoid any incompatlbility issues with your optical drive's firmware and recordable media, which can be more difficult to detect/read. If the drive reads the movie or audio disc, you know the drive is working, which then points at a recordable disc incompatibility.

It's not the media. The drives don't recognize that there is any media once loaded, no matter the type.

If this was my problem, I'd try the media in a different drive in another computer that was known to work perfectly. That way I'd be able to prove the media was OK.

Next, I'd swap optical drives between two computers. If the suspect drive works OK in anothr computer, that narrows the problem down to the first computer, but whether it's the wrong BIOS setting, a Windows driver problem or a bad SATA cable remains to be seen.

If you don't have another computer at home to check your drives in, do you have a friend, relative or computer shop nearby?

How old are your optical drives? The manufacturing date is usually printed on the top.

I've got some drives going back to 1995, but most are 2005 or newer. My heap of dead DVD and CD drives is slowly increasing and I regard anything still working after 6 years as a bonus. Some 20 year old drives still work fine, others die much sooner. I generally blame the laser and have replaced several heads in expensive HiFi CD players. Not worth it in a computer drive.

You can still buy new DVD (cheap) and Blu-ray writers (more expensive). It might be worth spending $20 on a brand new 5.25" internal DVD Writer to see if your computer/BIOS/Windows setup is OK. If the new DVD drive works, both of your Blu-ray drives might be faulty.

Good luck.

 

[COLGeek]

SATA mode should be AHCI.

Does changing SATA ports used to connect the ODD change any behavior at all?

 

[Nice Nicer]

The current drive is plugged into a sata6 (grey) and has worked there more than once.

A quote from the Manual:

Intel® Z77 Serial ATA 3.0 Gb/s connectors (7-pin SATA3G_3–6 [blue])

These connectors connect to Serial ATA 3.0 Gb/s hard disk drives and optical disc
drives via Serial ATA 3.0 Gb/s signal cables.

Try the blue ones?