DVD drive missing from 'THIS PC'

I have searched for two days and tried everything that google served up to try to get this drive to show up. I think it dates back to when I did the Windows 10 upgrade but not sure, I hardly ever used the DVD writer, even before that, so this may have been missing since that time (about two years ago).

My computer is ASUS motherboard, running the latest BIOS for P8Z68V-LX. The drive in question shows up in Windows device manager as TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-222AL. In addtion to the internal HDD, I have two externals which show up a C: E: and F:
. So .. Windows knows enough to skip D: but not smart enough to show it on THIS PC in File Explorer.

I have attempted to update registry for the device, uninstall the devices from Device Manager and rebooted a million times over the last two days and even tried to install an run Tweekui's Driver Talent scan tool, which found nothing.

I now humbly with my tail between my legs, come here to the experts to beg for some assitance. The reason I am looking to access the DVD writer, is to create a system rescue disk but obviously it is not able to work without the D: drive.

help!

Regards,
lrw

Hey Irw,
If you haven't already ...
1. Does Disk Management show the DVD Drive with D assigned to it.
2. In File Explorer > View > Options > Folder Properties > View Tab > Hide Empty Drives unchecked
3. Since you mention registry, I'm assuming you mean the ones in the following link starting at #3
Disc/ DVD/ CD Drives Not Showing/ Missing on Windows 10 [SOLVED] - Driver Easy

Eagle51 said:

Hey Irw,
K, I'll state the obvious :)
1. Does Disk Management show the DVD Drive with D assigned to it.
2. In File Explorer > View > Options > Folder Properties > View Tab > Hide Empty Drives unchecked
3. Since you mention registry, I'm assuming you mean the ones in the following link starting at #3
Disc/ DVD/ CD Drives Not Showing/ Missing on Windows 10 [SOLVED] - Driver Easy

Hi Eagle51,
Thanks for the reply. Nothing is too obvious for me ... I'm not sure where to check Disk Management. I unchecked the Hide Empty Drives and nothing happened yet. I'll try rebooting after I send this reply to you. The registry tweaks are indeed the same as the one's in you link.

Thanks,
lrw

Hey Irw,
Right Click on Start > Disk Management.

Thanks for the reply. Nothing is too obvious for me

Sorry, that was presumptuous on my part :)

Eagle51 said:

Hey Irw,
Right Click on Start > Disk Management.


Sorry, that was presumptuous on my part :)

All righty, then! I googled it and found the same. After reboot, still not in THIS PC. Disk management shows it at the bottom as D: Here is a screen shot:


It shows as no media. There is a blank DVD in it, but obviously it is not smart enough to know that yet.

Thanks,
lrw

Post a screen shot of Device Manager with the following...
View > Show Hidden Devices checked
DVD/CD ROM Drives expanded
IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers expanded

Eagle51 said:

Post a screen shot of Device Manager with the following...
View > Show Hidden Devices checked
DVD/CD ROM Drives expanded
IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers expanded

I have tried right clicking both of those and uninstalled them. They disappear but return after a reboot.

lrw

Did you try putting a dvd/cd in the drive?

Otherwise, rt click the dvd drive in disk mgmt, select change drive letter and give it a different letter.

SIW2 said:

Did you try putting a dvd/cd in the drive?

Otherwise, rt click the dvd drive in disk mgmt, select change drive letter and give it a different letter.

I just tried both of those suggestions and unfortunately no luck. I set the drive to G:, since I did not want to break my two external drives. The disk management allowed me to change the letter and responded to eject. I rebooted after all this and still no glory. I will now set it back to D:

lrw

would anyone know if this might be a firmware issue on the SH-222AL drive? I am seeing that there's a couple of versions on http://www.firmwarehq.com/Samsung/SH-222AL/files.html but not sure how to check the current version on the drive, or how to flash it and whether or not it would help.