Restore Missing CD/DVD Drive in Windows 10

After upgrading from Windows 7 SP1 /  Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 (using free upgrade) some users have begun complaining that the system couldn’t detect a CD/DVD drive. In BIOS/UEFI the CD/DVD-ROM is identified correctly, but in Windows 10 itself it is not displayed in the Device Manager or is displayed with the exclamation icon. The problem has been reported for HP, Lenovo, Acer and Dell laptops/netbooks.

In the Device Manager, a CD/DVD drive may be displayed with the exclamatory icon in case of the following errors:

In this article, we have collected several ways to restore the missing CD/DVD drive in Windows 10. If you have any of the problems described above, it is recommended to try all these methods one by one.

Method 1

Firstly, you should try to uninstall the device in the Device Manager.

1. In the Device Manager (devmgmt.msc), right-click your DVD-ROM and select Uninstall in the dropdown menu.
2. Restart your computer.
3. Search for new devices (“Scan for hardware changes”).
4. The system will try to automatically find and install the suitable driver.

Method 2

If the DVD-ROM is displayed neither in the Device Manager, nor in Windows Explorer, let’s try to create new register keys responsible for the DVD-ROM functioning.

• Start the command prompt with the administrator privileges
• Run this command:reg.exe add "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi\Controller0" /f /v EnumDevice1 /t REG_DWORD /d 0x00000001
  
• Restart your computer

Method 3

Try to reset custom CD/DVD settings in the registry:

1. Start regedit.exe
2. Go to branch HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
3. Find and delete the keys UpperFilters and LowerFilters  
   
   Tip. If there is UpperFilters.bak in this branch, don’t touch it.
4. Restart your computer