Sometimes in Windows, you may face the following issue: after a reboot, your DVD or Blu-ray drive disappears from the This PC folder! Its drive letter disappears completely, and despite what you may have tried, it does not work. The Device Manager shows an exclamation mark for your optical drive and says the drivers for it cannot be installed. Here is how to fix this issue and get your DVD drive working again.
Warning! These instructions require some basic Registry editing skills. If you are not familiar with Registry Editor, read our Registry Essentials first.
- Open your registry editor (see how)
- Navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi
Tip: you can access the desired Registry key with one click.
- Create a new subkey here under the 'Atapi' key called Controller0.
- Create a new DWORD value under Controller0 called EnumDevice1 and set it to 1.
- Reboot the PC
After the reboot, your DVD drive should be accessible.
If despite these steps, your DVD drive is still inaccessible or for you, the above keys and values does not work, then follow these steps:
- Open the registry editor again.
- Go to the following key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} - Remove the 'UpperFilters' and 'LowerFilters' registry values in the right pane of Registry Editor at this key.
- Reboot the PC again.
Now your DVD drive should be listed again in This PC/Computer folder.
Support us
Winaero greatly relies on your support. You can help the site keep bringing you interesting and useful content and software by using these options:
If you like this article, please share it using the buttons below. It won't take a lot from you, but it will help us grow. Thanks for your support!
Advertisеment
Thank you for the above advice in recovering my DVD after the Win8.1 upgrade. Removing the upper/lower filters worked.
You are welcome!
first part of fix: controller0 key does not exist ?????
second part : there is a lot of identical class keys …Control/Class/{4d36e965-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}
on which one delete lower and upper filter ???????
so this fix is inapplicable
Create the Controller0 key if it doesn’t exist and the Enum value under it. As for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}, there is only 1 key named that. The rest are called {4D36E966…., {4D36E967… and so on.
Just to give a positive comment to the solution above.
I installed Win8.1Enterprise on a fresh system using the DVD to do so, then completed ran Windows Update.
I then went to install Visual C from DVD and found know sign of the DVD drive any where within the Windows environment, even though it had obviously worked to install windows in the first place, it was though completely visible and enabled in the BIOS.
I followed just the first part of the solution given above, rebooted and just predicted, the DVD was visible again and worked as you would expect.
I should point out that I don’t know if the DVD was never installed correctly by the Win8.1 instillation process or if it was removed by Windows Update straight afterwards, but he result was still that it was not there.
Thanks for a quick and easy solution.
Thank you for your feedback.
Thank you so much for posting the solution to this problem. I spent the whole day chatting with my PC’s manufacturer. They had me refresh my windows install all kinds of updates and nothing worked. I only lost all my software, settings and my time for nothing.
Anyways, I wanted to say that this solution works. Thanks again
Option 1 did not work and for option 2 i found the UpperFilter but not LowerFilter, and changed the value but it also did not work. My question is: do i keep what i didn in option 1 when I try option 2? Or I have to delete the Contoller0 that I made before I delete the UpperFilter?
Thank you very much
I also tried these steps but did not get success, and also had only an upper limit entry. However, on starting iTunes after rebooting for the second part it reported missing registry entries and demanded reinstalling iTunes. I will try that.
Update:
As I said last night, the solution worked and the DVD showed up and was working properly. However, when I turned on the computer today it was gone again!
Any ideas why and how I can fix it?
Thank you in advance.
Thx mane! :)
I lost the drive after installing the Windows 8.1 upgrade. This solution worked like a charm.
Thanks
Wow, I flogged this one for several hours. Microsoft suggested part 1, but that didn’t work. Part 2 did the trick.
I really don’t think Microsoft should expect its users to be digging in the registry, very dangerous.
Thanks for the solve!
Well It took some trying because I did not know how to make a subkey much less knew what a DWORD was. Registry is not the place to be trying new things. Anyway, it worked!!!!!! Many thanks!!!!!!!
Well that is why we have this article for those not familiar with the Registry: https://winaero.com/blog/windows-registry-editor-for-dummies/ It’s long but will get you up to speed.
Thank you for fixing this for me!
You are welcome
I have exactly these symptoms on a Dell OptiPlex with Win 8.1. Tried the first part of the fix but it made no difference. Found the key for the 2nd part but there are no Upper or Lower Filters entries against it.
On my PC whenever I go to Device Manager the DVD drive has a yellow exclamation mark against it. If I uninstall and then scan for hardware changes, it reappears and works – until the next reboot.
i am too facing the same problem what to do now? please help!
Thank you Sergey. Finally found a proper soultion. Welcome back DVD unit.
You are welcome.
Create a new DWORD value under Controller0 called EnumDevice1 and set it to 1 worked. At first, I attempted to add the QWORD because I’m usng 64-bit, but it didn’t work. :D Good thing your solution worked.
yep it must be DWORD even in 64-bit OS
This fixed it, no reboots needed: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060
(I hope your browser puts it in your idiom…).
Option 1 solved my issue. I LOVE YOU!
My pleasure.
Thanks..Just removing The ‘LowerFiltters’ option..It’s work great..
In the second option i am not able to any upper filter and lower filter ! please help me!
Thank very much. It worked to the first attempt
Great to hear this.
Excellent instructions! Worked straight up and saved me hours of stuffing around, I’m sure
Thanks.
You are welcome
I don’t have installer32 what should I do so my dvd does not want to read. Can you help me to fix it?
Try to delete your DVD drive from the Device Manager
Wow! I searched high and low for this fix. Assus support couldn’t give it to me, but you did! Thanks much! What a hassle you have pulled me out of finally!
huh, you are welcome.
I tried the 2nd option, but edited the wrong key. There’s a bunch of keys that look the same. Any ways, Win8 won’t boot now. Good thing I work in Linux! I’ll reinstall, but may go back to Win7 instead of 8. I only use Windows for games. People be careful editing the Registry! :)
Was about to buy a new DVD writer assuming the damage of the existing one, but found no reason for its wrekage.
Just googled my issue and found the perfect solution.
Thank you Mr. Sergey Tkachenko.
You are welcome Kishan
Worked perfectly.
Thank you, Sergey!
It works!!! My Windows 8.1 64-bit wouldn’t detect my new LG blu ray drive. I created that key in regedit and now it works, I can finally burn my BR discs :-)! MANY THANKS FOR THE AUTHOR!
don’t mention it.