DVD Drive is not shown in Windows 7

[HeadlessBass]

Soo...I wanted to mount an ISO(no piracy whatsoever), and I downloaded Daemon Tools Lite. Upon installing it however, my DVD drive just...disappeared. It does not show in My Computer, nor in Device Manager. After doing every possible solution I found in the internet, including the registry fix and reinstalling Daemon, I decided to unplug and then plug again my drive...and it worked, if only until Windows were loaded. Then, the drive just died...I couldn't eject anything or even see the green light flashing...outside of System Restore(which is not an option for a myriad of reasons), is there anything I can do to make this thing work?
It's a LG GH24NSC0, by the way.

 

[captaincranky]

You kind of did anything but that which would make the most sense. Uninstall Daemon tools, and leave it out, then see if you can get the drive to work again without it.

That software is fairly notorious for causing issues. I suppose it's predicated on where you got it, as to what those issues might. be.

Have you tried Control Panel > "Device Manager" >"CD/DVD ROM" drives to determine if the drive shows there? Device Manager gives you several options to check the drive, update its drivers, etc.

It's not really unexpected the drive shows up before you have a Windows desktop. BIOS polls all the hardware at power on.

If the drive is lacking a driver, I don't believe it will show up in "Computer", much in the same way an unformatted HDD won't either.

Other solutions are, IIRC, Nero "Showtime" will even mount a DVD from a folder!

Also: http://www.dvdfab.cn/ has a free player they claim will even mount from a folder. Click the "Media Player" icon, to go to its download page.