computer_cartoon (http://www NULL.rj-diamond NULL.com/alex/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/computer_cartoon NULL.jpg) This one actually happened to me over the weekend.  I’m still finishing getting everything loaded on my Windows 7 (RTM) pc and somewhere in all those installs (Still haven’t figured out exactly what triggered it), both of the DVD-RW’s installed on the pc stopped appearing in windows and during the boot up I would get a message that my DVD device failed to initialize (start).

     I had seen this one in the past ( a couple of years ago) when uninstalling early versions of iTunes you would lose your drives, however, in this case I don’t use iTunes so I know that wasn’t it.  I found a Microsoft article that has information on exactly what happens to trigger this issue, the article for Windows XP, Vista, and 7 (It doesn’t say 7 but that’s what I used and it worked) you can find it at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;314060 (http://support NULL.microsoft NULL.com/default NULL.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;314060) and for Windows 2000 you can find it at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/270008/ (http://support NULL.microsoft NULL.com/kb/270008/). 

From the Microsoft Article –

“Your CD drive or DVD drive is missing or not recognized by Windows or other programs, so you cannot play or access a CD or DVD. This issue might have occurred after you installed, uninstalled, or updated a program or Windows Vista.
See the “More information (http://support NULL.microsoft NULL.com/#moreinfo)” section for detailed information.
This article helps you fix the problem. To have us fix this problem for you, go to the "Fix it for me" (http://support NULL.microsoft NULL.com/#fixit4me) section. If you would rather fix this problem yourself, go to the "Let me fix it myself" (http://support NULL.microsoft NULL.com/#letmefixit) section.”

     In my case, I just used the “Fix it for me” (Note the link here is for XP/Vista/7, you need to look at the Windows 2000 page if you have a Windows 2000 system, do NOT use this link for Windows 2000 as there are changes in the registry in 2000 that will be badly affected if you use the wrong fix it). It took all of a 2 minutes and the issue was resolved and my DVD-RW’s were showing again. Additionally, if you want to see what the manual steps are, if you want to do it yourself, you can click on the “Let me fix it myself” link for complete step by step info.