Owners of computers with CD (DVD) drives may encounter a situation in which their drive does not see or read discs inserted into the drive. This dysfunction can be caused by a number of reasons, both hardware and software, and require direct user intervention to solve this problem. In this article I will tell you why the drive does not see the disk, I will list the reasons that cause this situation, and I will also tell you how to fix it.
If you are faced with the question of what to do if the drive does not read the disc, then, first of all, you need to determine the reasons why the drive does not recognize the disc. Let's divide the entire list of reasons into hardware and software.
Hardware reasons
The hardware reasons why your drive does not see the disk, I would include the following:
Software reasons
After we've looked at the hardware reasons, let's look at the software reasons why the drive won't read the disk. I would give the following reasons:
- Conflict with virtual disks (manager programs are installed on the computer virtual disks Alchohol level 120%, Nero, Daemon Tools and a number of analogues);
- Problem with drivers (incorrect operation of drivers, their outdated versions and so on);
- The SD (DVD) drive is software disabled in the BIOS.
How to fix the problem when the drive does not see the disk
I suggest users to follow these steps when the drive does not work:
- Check the tightness of the connections between the cables and connectors of the drive and the motherboard;
- Try temporarily removing the virtual disk managers installed on your PC (Alcohol, Daemon Tools, Nero, etc.);
- Reinstall the drivers hard drives. Click on “Start”, type devmgmt.msc in the search bar and press enter. In the list of Device Manager, find the item “DVD and CD-ROM drives”, expand it, right-click on the name of your player, and in the menu that appears, select “Delete” (if there are several drives, delete them all in the same way). Then click on the Action button at the top and select Update Hardware Configuration. The system will update the configuration and reinstall your drives in Device Manager;
- Use DMA if possible. Go to the specified Device Manager again, find the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers item and expand it. You can see items such as ATA channel 0, ATA channel 1, etc. Right-click on each of them, select “Properties”, go to “Advanced settings” and view the device type there. If the CD drive is listed there, then try checking the “Enable DMA” option (if it is, then, on the contrary, uncheck it). After this, reboot the system and see if your disk can be read;
Check the box “Enable DMA”
- Enter the BIOS and make sure that your drive is turned on, this may help in the issue where the drive does not recognize the disk;
- Roll back to the previous point Windows recovery, at which the drive worked correctly. Click on the “Start” button, type rstrui in the search bar, find the previous stable restore point, and roll back to it.
- Buy a new drive. If the service life of your device is calculated in years, then it could simply have exhausted its resource. Buy a new device, since their price on the market is not high.
Programs for solving problems with reading and writing disks with a disk drive
They can also help us with the question of why the drive does not see the disk special programs I would like to mention Microsoft Fixit, a program for fixing various software errors in the Windows OS. And also Recuva, Unstoppable Copier, PhotoRec and Bad Copy - programs that will try to read the information you need from a damaged disk.
To update your drive drivers, you should also use programs such as DriverPack Solution, Driver Booster Free, Slim Drivers and others like them, which allow you to install the latest drivers for your devices. Updating your disk drivers to the latest ones may help resolve the problem with your disk drive reading disks.
If you have Windows 10 on your PC and you also have a problem where the drive does not see the disk, then in addition to the tips I described above, try the following:
- Run Command Prompt as administrator (press Win+X keys, select " Command line(administrator)"), and there enter:
reg.exe add "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi\Controller0" /f /v EnumDevice1 /t REG_DWORD /d 0x00000001
Press enter and then reboot your system;
- Use the DVD Drive (Icon) Repair program. Install this product, launch it, click on the “Repair DVD Drive” button, wait for the result, and then restart your computer.
What to do if the drive does not detect disks [video]
In this material, I examined the problem of a disk drive when it does not see the disk, identified a list of reasons causing this dysfunction, and outlined ways to solve it. In most cases, hardware determinants are to blame for this problem - gradual failure of the drive, as well as physical damage to the surface of the disk (scratches, dust, and so on). To get rid of the “drive does not read discs” problem, try all the tips I listed, one of them may help you.
Almost every user may have had some problems with their computer's optical drives. To quickly solve problems that arise, you need to know the reasons that affect the drive not reading disks and other things.
The manifestation of the problem can be completely different. In some situations, one type of disk may read but not another. In addition, the drive can take a long time to spin up the disk, but in the end the operating system will not see it. Sometimes problems can arise with rewritable discs, but industrial disks work fine. You can also note the most common problem, which is that DVD video discs cannot be read.
The simplest, but not necessarily correct option is DVD drive fails
Discs may not be readable due to dust, wear and tear due to constant use, and many other reasons. There are several main symptoms that the problem has arisen due to physical reasons. If the drive is able to play DVDs, but CDs won't open, the problem may be a faulty laser.
If, when inserting a disk into the drive, you hear the sound of it spinning, and then you can hear it slowing down and a grinding noise may be heard. If this happens with discs of the same type, then the reason for this behavior may be mechanical wear of the lens or its contamination. In the case when this happens with a specific disk, we can assume that it is this media that is damaged. In addition, the drive can play licensed discs, but cannot read reusable discs.
In addition, hardware reasons may contribute to problems with disc recording. In this case, the behavior may be as follows. It may happen that while recording any types of discs, they begin to be recorded, and then the recording is abruptly interrupted or completes, but then the resulting media cannot be played back anywhere. Sometimes, after recording, it is impossible to erase the information on a reusable disc and write it back.
If any of the above occurs, then most likely it is due to hardware reasons. Most often this can happen due to dust on the lens or a malfunction of the laser. In addition, this problem may arise for one more reason. Sometimes the IDE or SATA power and data cables may be poorly connected. Initially, you need to check this point. To do this, you need to remove the side panel of the system unit and check that all the wires are in place. There must be a reliable connection between the motherboard and the drive, as well as the power supply.
If this is all right, then the problem may arise for the first two reasons. In this case, the easiest option for most users will be to purchase a new one. optical drive, which is not very expensive. In the case of a laptop drive, the situation is a little more complicated. Replacing it is more difficult, and the solution may be to use a third-party drive that connects to the laptop via USB.
If you have the desire and opportunity, then you can disassemble the drive and wipe the lens with something soft. Most problems are solved this way. It is worth noting here that the design of most drives does not require disassembly at home, but this can be done if desired.
Software reasons why DVD does not read discs
Such problems can be caused not only by hardware reasons. In addition, this can happen for software reasons. Discs may stop playing after reinstalling the operating system. In addition, the installation of a program may influence the occurrence of the problem. This is mainly influenced by utilities for slicing data into optical media or working with virtual disks. Quite rarely, the drive stops working after updating the drivers, either automatically or manually.
To check this, you can use one in an effective way. To do this, you need to insert into the drive boot disk, and set the BIOS to boot from disk. If the download was successful, then the drive is working properly.
In this case, you can do several manipulations. The first step is to try to remove the application that may be causing the problem. If this is the reason, then you can try to look for a similar utility or install the same one, but a different version. In addition, you can try to roll back the system to the moment when everything worked.
If the drive stops working after updating the drivers, then you need to perform slightly different manipulations. Initially, you need to go to the device manager of the operating system. This can be done using the Win+R combination and writing the command devmgmt.msc.
After that, you need to go to the DVD drives or CD drives section. Then you need to right-click on the drive and select “Delete”. Then you need to select "Action". In this window you need to click on “Update hardware configuration”. After this, the drive will be found again and the operating system will install all the necessary drivers for it.
Also, if you see virtual drives in Device Manager, you may need to remove them and restart your computer, which may help resolve the issue.
If you are using a Windows 7 drive, then you can try to solve the problem in another way. You need to go to the device manager again and go to the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers section. The items ATA Channel 0, ATA Channel 1 and the like should be displayed here.
Then you need to go to the properties of each of them and look at the value in the “Device Type” item in the “Advanced Settings” section. If it says ATAPI CD drive, then it is recommended to remove this and set it to “Enable DMA”. After this, you need to save the changes, restart the computer and try the drive.
If you are using the XP version, you can go to Device Manager, right-click on the drive and select “Update Drivers”. After this, you need to select “Install the driver manually” and indicate any standard driver for the drive.
This problem is quite common, there can be many reasons, including: hardware And software.
The saddest option is complete breaking devices. If your drive has been in use for a long time and at some point stopped reading discs, then perhaps its service life is already running out, this situation is especially typical for laptop drives. Unfortunately, their resource is short.
DVD drive has failed
In any case, do not rush to get upset, test the drive on another computer, if it works there, there are software problems.
Make sure the drive is physically correct connected. Do you remember if it was turned off? Suddenly you forgot to connect it.
The hardware problem also applies laser clogging(dust on the lens). If the drive is displayed in the Computer section, but the discs are not readable, then perhaps the laser could simply be clogged.
You should open the device and use a simple cotton swab to gently clean the head. Also for these tasks there is special wheels, to which cleaning agents are applied. Spinning such a disc in the drive will clean the laser head.
If the laser head completely broken, and not just clogged - you can, of course, try to take it to service center, but it’s easier to completely replace the drive than to try to revive it. Don't want to bother with installing a new drive? You can buy portable. It costs a little more, but it is much more convenient. You can connect it via USB port when you need it.
Software causes of malfunction
The situation is simpler with software problems. The disk drive may be disabled in BIOS. Detailed Guide on inclusion specifically for your BIOS version can be found on the Internet. 
Remember at what point the drive stopped reading discs. You may have installed a program like Alcohol 120% or Daemon Tools. Emulators virtual disks can become reason non-working DVD-Rom. In this case, you can try the following. Go to Device Manager. This can be done via Control, right click by Computer icon.
Go to device Manager and make sure everything is in order there, in the section DVD drives and CD drives. In the section IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers delete duplicate channels, if any. After that restart computer. 
If this doesn't help, remove the software causing the failure and check the drive again.
In the manager you should also pay attention to the section DVD drives for the presence of non-working or . In this case you will need reinstall driver. 
There is another option remove device And restart PC, this way you can start reinitialization. 
Many users encounter a problem when The drive does not read discs installed in it. Don't immediately throw away the drive and run to the store to buy a new one. After all, there are many reasons for this and many of them can be eliminated on your own without replacing the drive.
The main reasons why discs cannot be read
Problems of this nature can be divided into hardware and software.
Software problems with the drive
Software problems can result from bugs operating system or conflict with other programs. Conflict situations can arise, as a rule, after installing virtual drives in the system. If the drive stops working after installing programs such as Alcohol 120% or Daemon Tools, the error is most likely a software conflict.
To solve this problem, you should uninstall the program and perform a system rollback using a restore point. How to perform a system rollback on Windows in the video below:
If the recovery system was not enabled, then you should pay attention to the presence of any virtual drives in the device manager. If any are found, they must be removed.
In addition to conflicts, the problem may be due to a failed or incorrectly configured driver. You can check this in the device manager mentioned above. The DVD and CD Drives section should contain the drive installed on the system. In the “Device Status” window of the drive properties there should be a line “The device is working normally.” And now the same thing in pictures, only using the example of a hard drive:
Otherwise, you need to reinstall the driver. If the unreadable disc is a video disc, the problem may be related to the DVD region. In this case, you need to select the correct region in the drive properties. IMPORTANT! Please note that only 5 region changes are possible. Moreover, the counter cannot be reset either by reinstalling the system or by moving the drive to another PC.
If it's not readable DVD disc , most likely, the drive is incompatible with this blank. This usually applies to cheap blanks of dubious quality.
Hardware reasons why the drive does not read discs on a laptop or PC
- Hardware problems include failure of the drive or disk. First of all, if the disc cannot be read, you should make sure that there are no scratches or cracks on its surface. It is worth noting that in case of such damage, complete or partial data recovery is possible using specialized software.
- One of possible reasons may become contamination of the laser drive head. To clean it, it is best to use special cleaning discs. It is best to use the cleaning liquid that comes with this disc. The use of other liquids, such as acetone or alcohol, may lead to permanent failure of the laser head.
- Enough probable cause drive failure may be cable damage, both supplying and transmitting data. To eliminate this problem, it is worth replacing the cables with others. This must be done with the computer turned off, so that the voltage surge resulting from switching does not damage the motherboard or PC power supply.
Video on how to fix software problems with a disk drive:
And what should you do if the drive does not read discs on Windows 8:
One of the most common computer problems is a problem with reading (recognizing) disks in the computer drive. Many people face this problem when the drive suddenly stops opening discs. You insert a disk into the drive, but the drive starts to hum as it spins the disk and nothing happens, the disk won't open. Or the drive may open the disks as empty. There can be several reasons why such a malfunction can occur. Perhaps the drive has simply run its course and it's time to replace it. Fortunately, modern drives now cost less than a thousand rubles, and replacing a disk drive is not very expensive.
But still, before you write off your drive, you should try to figure it out, maybe it’s not the drive at all.
1. If you use programs for creating virtual disks, such as: Alcohol120%, Daemon Tools, etc., then try deleting all virtual disks created by these programs. Very often, problems with the disk drive arise precisely because of these programs. In addition, some computer users simply create a bunch of virtual disks unnecessarily and do not properly remove these from the system virtual disks. Naturally, over time, the computer will fail.
2. Check the cable connecting the drive to motherboard, perhaps after replacing the cable your drive will come back to life.
3. It may be a problem with the drive drivers. Go to device manager: Start -> Control Panel -> System -> Hardware -> Device Manager. Looking for IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, all these controllers must be removed from the system in order to update the drivers (don’t worry, after rebooting Windows computer everything will come back).
We remove all these controllers one by one. Right-click on the controller and click delete. After removal, some controllers will remain in the list and will ask to restart the computer, but you do not agree to reboot until you delete everything.
After you remove all controllers, reboot. Windows will detect all remote devices and install drivers on them.
4. You can use the method of flashing the drive. But this procedure is quite tedious and complicated. In addition, if you reflash your drive incorrectly, the drive can be thrown into the garbage chute. Therefore, you should not engage in flashing if you do not have enough experience and knowledge.
If none of the methods described above helped you, then most likely your drive has done its job. You'll have to buy a new one. Based on my experience, I can say that in 50% of cases disk drive problems arise due to its physical malfunctions: the drive board has failed, the drive itself has burned out.
