Disappearing optical drives (DVDs) in certain parts of Win

[PieLam]

Hi all,

I have this weird Win problem with my optical drives.  Both are DVD drives (plextor DVD writer & Asus DVD Blue Ray writer).

When I'm in Win Explorer both drives are non-existant (they disappear).  When I'm in My Computer, however, both drives are present....

Attached are the screen caps that show this.

This all started after installing a new CPU cooler last week. Before that I had no problems whatsoever with either drive.  This system's been running about two & a half years now.

My System:
Win 7 Pro (64)
Asus MoBo M5A99x w/ AMD 4170 CPU
8 gb DDR3 RAM
1 gb Nvidia GE Force 550 ti by Asus in a PCIe x16 slot
2 Western Digital 1 tb drives (black) (SATA III) {both single partitioned}
1 120gb SSD (SATA III)
1 Plextor DVD drive (SATA III)
1 Asus blue ray DVD drive (SATA III)

When I ran WinRepair yesterday, I seen that it detected both optical drives as hidden, so I made sure the boxes to unhide them were checked.  I was pleased, I thought WR was going to fix my drive problem.  Sadly though, both drives were still hidden after rebooting. 

Sadly I had to restore the registry this morning due to a lag issue with my sound (built-in on MoBo) that appeared after running WR yesterday.

As far as I know, I ran WR with ALL recommendations.  I even had to learn how to go into Safe Mode on my system for the first time.

[Shane]

Mine does the same.

It is a setting in Windows where it hides empty drives.

I know the one setting for having it hide empty drives in Computer, but I dont know where the setting is and if there is one for the left folder option.

Shane

[Boggin]

Have you resolved your issues now.

On my Win 7 laptop none of the drives show up until I click on Computer which would seem to be normal.

[PieLam]

Have you resolved your issues now.

I wish, no.
         
On my Win 7 laptop none of the drives show up until I click on Computer which would seem to be normal.
         
I would've thought that too, but at one point (if memory serves), all my drives were in Win Explorer.  I've pretty much given-up on this issue since it's over a year old & doesn't seem to affect anything. Just an unexplained Win-thing now.
         
I have a shortcut icon on my desktop to both optical drives. If I remove a disk, the shortcut's icon image changes & in Explorer, the drive disappears, they re-appear when a disc is loaded.
         
I know about the setting Shane was talking about and I always make sure its ON.  I didn't know of another such setting.

[Boggin]

I didn't know there was a setting - but on my three laptops - two now upgraded to Win 10, they have only ever appeared in Computer along with the other drives.

The only reason I came across your thread was because I saw you online and not recognising your name, checked your profile and viewed your posts.

It wasn't until I had added my reply that I saw Shane had already responded way back and then unlocked the thread.