How to remove built-in DVD drive from 'Devices and Drives'?

My Dell 4650 has a built-in CD/DVD drive that works just fine, but the computer is on a shelf under a desk and facing the wrong way, so using the drive is awkward. So I bought a Toshiba 'external' drive that connects with a USB cable, and it works just as well and can be within easy reach. Both drives show up under 'This PC,' and I'm generally able to keep them straight, but is there a way to make the native Dell drive drop off the list short of disconnecting it? I'd want to be able to come back and reinstate it easily, without having to reinstall the driver or whatever. Can this be done easily, reversibly, and without hardware modification? Thanks!

Open device manager. Double click on DVD/CD-ROM drives. Double click on the internal dvd drive. At the top click on driver. Then
click on disable device and click ok.

Well, that was easy! I knew there had to be a way, thanks very much for the simple instructions. That did make the native drive G disappear, and my USB external CD/DVD drive now comes up when I plug it in as the E DVD drive. All seems to work just fine, although I initially get two listings of the E drive, but one disappears once I'm using it.

Again, many thanks!

You are very welcome and I am glad I could help. If you upgrade to version 1809 or 1903 it will probably enable it again.