“Why is my DVD drive not showing in Windows 10 computer? I have installed everything needed and inserted the DVD disc into the DVD drive but there shows nothing in Windows 10. What’s wrong with this? How can I make my DVD drive show up in Windows 10? ”

If you are a Windows user, this problem shouldn’t be a strange to you. The DVD drive not showing in Windows is a problem Windows users experience now and then. When this happens, most Windows users would think that this is because of hardware issue. They might think they have to get a new DVD drive for their computer. Actually, mostly the DVD drive not showing in Windows is not a hardware problem. It’s a software problem. That means you don’t need to purchase additional DVD drive or replace or update your computer hardware before you could solve the issue of DVD drive not showing in Windows 10/8/7.

In this guide, we would like to recommend you several effective solutions to help you fix DVD drive not showing in Windows 10/8/7 computers. Of course, mostly we are talking about the software issues. If unlucky your DVD drive or computer hard drive gets broken or damaged, you have to update the hardware things. Just check the below content to get the DVD drive not showing up issue in Windows 10/8/7 computer.

Part 1: Solutions to DVD Drive Not Showing in Windows

There are various solutions to help you solve DVD drive not showing in Windows 10/8/7 computer. You could try the below solutions to see if the issue of DVD drive not showing up in Windows 10 gets solved or not.

Solution 1. Show Hidden CD/DVD Devices in Windows 7/8/10

Have you attempted to show the hidden device in Windows 10? At times, Windows 10 update will do a reset, and restore some settings to an earlier state. As soon as your disc is not showing up as normal, try at first to unhide CD/DVD device.

show-hidden-devices-to-fix-dvd-not-showing

To show up the hidden devices on your computer, you could follow the below steps:

  1. Open "This PC > Manage > Device Manager" to open the Device Manager.
  2. On the Device Manager window, go to the View menu and select “Show hidden devices“.
  3. Right-click on each entry present under both “DVD/CD-ROM drives” and “IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers” sections and select Uninstall.
  4. Once this is done, go to the Actions menu and select “Scan for hardware changes“.
  5. Restart your computer and take a look if you can see the DVD drive now.

Solution 2. Uninstall IDE ATA/ ATAPI Controllers

If the DVD drive is still missing, you can try the following method. The below solution will show you how to uninstall IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers to get your DVD drive show up normally.

uninstall-ide-ata-atapi-to-fix-dvd-not-showing

To do this, you need to follow the below steps:

  1. Press Windows Key + X to open Power User Menu.
  2. Select Device Manager from the list.
  3. Once the Device Manager opens, go to View and choose Show hidden devices.
  4. Locate ATA Channel controllers and uninstall them all by right-clicking them and choosing Uninstall from the menu.
  5. Optional: Users also suggest to remove Intel (R) Serial ATA Storage Controller, so if you have it make sure that you remove it as well.
  6. After you’re done close Device Manager and restart your PC.

Users reported that this problem can be easily fixed by uninstalling IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers from Device Manager. If you don’t have ATA Channel available in the Device Manager, be sure to delete SATA controller and restart your computer. When your computer restarts the DVD drive should appear again.

Solution 3. Update or reinstall CD/DVD Driver

To update the driver, search for the driver on the device manufacturer's website, and then follow the installation instructions on the website.

reinstall-dvd-driveri-to-fix-dvd-not-showing

Check the below instructions to learn how to update or reinstall DVD driver on your computer:

  1. Press the Windows logo key + R to open the Run dialog box.
  2. Type devmgmt.msc in the Run dialog box, then press Enter. If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Allow.
  3. In Device Manager, expand DVD/CD-ROM drives, right-click the CD and DVD devices, and then click "Uninstall".
  4. When you are prompted to confirm that you want to remove the device, click "OK".
  5. Restart the computer.

If you don’t want to update or uninstall/reinstall the DVD driver manually, you could actually turn to some 3rd-party programs that could help you automatically update your DVD driver to fix DVD not showing in Windows 7/8/10 computer issue. There are quite a lot of such programs, like Tweakbit’s Driver Updater, Driver Genius, etc.

Solution 4. Fix Corrupted Registry Entries

Registry entry needs to be taken very carefully, as any improper modifying of it can result in severe consequences. So, make sure you have already backed up your Windows 10 registry before fixing corrupted registry entries to make CD/DVD show up again.

fix-registry-to-fix-dvd-not-showing

The below steps would show you how to fix corrupted Registry entries to make DVD drive show up again on your Windows 10/8/7:

  1. Press Windows+R keys simultaneously to launch a Run command. Type regedit and press Enter.
  2. Follow the path; HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\ {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
  3. Look for UpperFilters and LowerFilters strings on the right side panel.
  4. Right-click them and choose "Delete".

Solution 5: Remove Virtual Drive Software

Virtual drive software, which is used to mount disc images (ISOs) can sometimes cause conflict with physical optical drives. If you have utilities such as Daemon Tools, PowerISO, ISO Recorder or similar software installed, remove them. Press Windows key + x  and choose Programs and Features. Highlight the program and click Uninstall.

remove-virtual-drive-to-fix-dvd-not-showing

Solution 6: Try a different USB port or another PC

If you are using an external DVD drive connected to your Windows 10/8/7 computer via USB cable, unplug it and try a different USB port. It's possible the port in question is failing, or just being finicky with your specific drive. If it's plugged into a USB 3.0 port, try a USB 2.0 port. If it's plugged into a USB hub, try plugging it directly into the PC instead. You might also try it in another computer.

Solution 7: Get some DVD drive repair tool to do the job

In case that all the free methods failed to fix CD/DVD missing problem in Windows 10 unfortunately, don't give it up so early. Some third-party CD/DVD repair software is powerful enough to repair many disc problems, though most of which are not free, it's still worth a try.

Part 2: Turn DVD Disc Digital to Fix the DVD Drive Missing Error - Leawo DVD Ripper

If the DVD drive missing error happens frequently, you could actually try to copy, backup DVD disc to computer, or turn your DVD disc into digital videos for storing on computer. Since turning DVD disc into digital video files would make it more convenient for you to enjoy them, converting DVD would be the first choice over copying DVD to computer. With professional DVD converter tool, you could easily turn your DVD disc to digital video files for storing on your computer, playing back on your mobile devices, or even uploading to YouTube or other video sharing sites for sharing. What you need is only a professional DVD to digital video converter.

Leawo DVD Ripper is the right DVD disc to digital video converter you need to help you freely rip and convert nearly any DVD movie from disc, folder and ISO image file to video files in any format for any device, media player, editing tools, etc. It could decrypt, rip and convert DVD to MP4, MKV, AVI, MOV, FLV, WMV, etc., and extract audio files off DVD to save in MP3, AAC, AC3, etc. You could even adjust the output parameters like codec, bit rate, aspect ratio, frame rate, channel, etc. so as to make sure output files meet your needs exactly.

Download and install Leawo DVD Ripper on your computer. You can download Leawo DVD Ripper for Windows and Leawo DVD Ripper for Mac according to your own needs. Insert source DVD disc into the DVD drive. And then follow the below guide to learn how to rip and convert DVD disc to digital video files in detail.

blu-ray-ripper

Leawo Blu-Ray Ripper 

☉ Decrypt and rip Blu-ray/DVD discs with disc protection and region code
☉ Convert Blu-ray/DVD to MP4, MKV, AVI, MOV, FLV, and other 180+ HD/SD formats
☉ Convert Blu-ray/DVD main movie to videos for space saving
☉ Convert 2D Blu-ray/DVD movies to 3D movies with 6 different 3D effects
☉ Fast conversion with NVIDIA CUDA, AMD APP and Intel Quick Sync acceleration technologies

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Note: Leawo DVD Ripper has been built into Leawo Prof. Media as a module.

Step 1: Add source DVD movie

add-source-file

Launch Leawo Prof. Media and then open the “Convert” module to enter the “Convert” module. Then, click “Add Blu-ray/DVD” button to click “Add from CD-ROM” to load source DVD disc from the DVD drive.

Note:

  1. Leawo DVD Ripper offers 3 different DVD content loading modes. Full Movie mode enables you to load all content in source DVD for converting, while Main Movie mode enables you to select one title for loading and converting. In Custom Mode, you will be able to select multiple titles for loading and converting. Choose one according to your needs.
  2. Leawo DVD Ripper enables you to freely select which title(s) for loading and converting. Also, you could even edit selected DVD title to get desired video clips converted only, add watermark, apply 3D effect, etc.

Step 2: Choose output format

Click the drop-down box right before the big green “Convert” button on the sub-menu bar, and choose “Change” to choose output format. You could freely choose any video file format as output format from “Format” and “Device” groups.

set-profile

Step 3: Adjust output video parameters

After setting output format, open the drop-down button right before the big green “Convert” again and then choose “Edit” option to enter the “Profile Settings” panel, where you could adjust video and audio parameters of output format, including: video codec, quality, bit rate, frame rate, aspect ratio, channel, audio codec, resolution, etc. Change these parameters according to your needs.

set-parameters"

Step 4: Set output directory

After setting output format and adjusting the parameters, click the big green “Convert” button on the sub-menu bar and then set output directory in the “Save to” box.

set-directory

Step 5: Start converting DVD to digital videos

After that, click the bottom “Convert” button on the pop-up sidebar. Leawo DVD Ripper would then start converting DVD movies to digital video files for saving on your computer.

converting-DVD-movies

When the conversion completes, you will get your DVD discs into digital video files. Now, no matter your DVD drive shows up or not, you could freely play back the DVD content on your computer through the digital video files you have got.