Help ! DVD drive has " disapeared "

hi - sometime in the last 7 days [ I loaded new software 8 days ago ] my DVD drive has vanished [ from explorer ] , control panel knows something is there [ it gives the correct make / model of the drive ] but gives the error message :

Windows cannot start this hardware device because its configuration information (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged. (Code 19)

can anyone suggest fixes ?

reply to post by ignorant_ape


Right click on "My Computer", open the "Hardware" tab, select "Device Manager". Find the drive on the list, right click on it, and select "Uninstall".

Then go to control panel, select "add hardware" and let Windows autodetect the device.

Hi there, Well I had same thing happen with my Win 8 PC in March, it had lost the DVD Driver. What I did was shut PC down by power button, wait 5 min and I turned PC back on, the Drive loaded, but later got lost again, so I went into control panel and went to Install New Hardware, the PC searched for some time, and loaded the DVD drive auto no problem.
Good luck, hope that works, remember to have a disk in the drive, it helps PC to find it.

Usually, when there is a driver problem associated with hardware, the fix is to delete the driver and reboot the system. Most basic hardware (disk drives, keyboard, mouse, video, some printers, etc) can be fixed this way. Don't do this though if you have specialized hardware and know you will need a special driver unless you have it handy and have a clue as to how to do the reinstall.

One of the earlier posts told you how to un-install. Rebooting afterwards is simpler than asking the device manager to reinstall. If it's common hardware, the system knows how to install either the correct driver or a default driver.

If all the above fails, it could also be as simple as replacing the SATA cable.

I recently had a similar issue and the above methods failed, turns out it was a quick simple fix that even someone with no computer knowledge can do.

reply to post by ignorant_ape

This happens all the time and is an easy fix. Do the instructions in the RESOLUTION section of the following Microsoft article, then restart your computer. This also works on Windows 7:

support.microsoft.com...

reply to post by ignorant_ape


This is a common problem on windows XP and can be restored by running a simple script.

But as you failed to mention what version of windows you are using its a bit hard to offer any specific help.

reply to post by _BoneZ_


and we have a winner this was the advice that fixed the problem

thanks to everyone else who tried to help

Yep I remember this notorious issue with XP. A bit of searching on Microsoft will get you to a "fixit for me" patch. If I recall it had something to do with the DVD changing it's UltraDMA to PIO or something like that. It just does it out of the blue for some reason. That's XP for ya