CD Drive (D) Somehow Affecting My XP?

-So whenever I start up my Windows XP, every so often, (recently it's been very often) several functions on my computer just won't work, like saving files for instance. I notice that whenever this happens, in "My Computer", the "CD Drive (D)" is present, which by the way, if I double click on or try to open it, my computer freezes. Also, the drive itself will never open CD or DVD files...

However, if I start up my computer and it doesn't appear in "My Computer", everything works fine.

I have no idea what to do, there are no tutorials that I can find anywhere...

I'm assuming it may be damaged, but if there's at least a way to completely get rid of this drive, any help would be nice. Or even better, a way to get it working again.

Can't uninstall it... or delete it either...It may not be your CD Drive but a Rootkit. I am well aware that many times when a person asks a question about a problem they will be inundated with responses about Spyware and use this or that removal program. But I am speaking from experience. Sometimes with a rootkit infection there are no overt problems but suddenly hardware esp CD drives will start to malfunction. You may notice: the inability to copy or burn. The CD drive may appear multiple times in My Computer with addition Drive letters assigned. And as you pointed out--you can not open CD or DVD files. I had the problem in 2009 when I first encountered TDSS rootkit.



Take a look a the excerpt and link below:



"a few years ago, SONY released CDs that had rootkit technology designed to protect the digital rights of the music on the CD. This proved disastrous as hackers copied their methods to burrow under the Windows operating system with the same rootkit strategies that SONY used. There are still some of those Sony CDs around. The rootkit sometimes causes CD and DVD drives to not appear in Explorer or cause other issues ..."



http://www.cd-dvd-troubleshooter.com/one鈥?/a>



Even if a rootkit infection is not your specific problem; check out the link. It helps troubleshoot and repair XP CD drive issues. Consider running a rootkit scanner to play it safe.



Hardware Problem. If you can ascertain that you have no malware issues. Then the CD drive itself may have failed. Usually, the Drive LED Light with behave erratically such as not Flashing when the drive is engaged or strange grinding or even a burnt smell coming from the drive. I have known bad CD drives to stop being detected by the OS but that is not always the case. I have not ever known a malfunctioning CD drive to make the computer freeze but I would not say it's impossible. If you have access to a similar model computer--you can try swapping the Drive. It the machine works fine--then it's a bad CD Drive but if you still have the problems described earlier. I think it is a malware issue.



Good Luck.The only solution is to remove and or replace the drive.



That's the ONLY fix!