Missing CD drive in Vista Windows Ultimate (for a complete Dummy)

My cd drive keeps going missing??? Can can anyone help???
I am running windows vista ultimate, service Pack 1, 32 bit operating.

Somedays it re appears and other days .....pffft....gone!

 

Windows Vista Ultimate Service Pack 1 (build 6001)
Install Language: English (United States)
System Locale: English (United Kingdom)
Installed: 07/09/2012 5:26:33 PM
Boot Mode: Legacy BIOS in UEFI (Secure Boot not supported)
3.30 gigahertz Intel Core i3-2120
64 kilobyte primary memory cache
512 kilobyte secondary memory cache
3072 kilobyte tertiary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (2 total)
Hyper-threaded (4 total)
3000.60 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
2370.71 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

HP Desktop HD BD07 USB Device [Hard drive] (2000.40 GB) -- drive 1, s/n WMAZA7346511
ST1000DM003-1CH162 [Hard drive] (1000.20 GB) -- drive 0, s/n Z1D1TRC0, rev CC43, SMART Status: Healthy
Board: ASRock B75M-GL
Serial Number: E80-26015800353
Bus Clock: 100 megahertz
UEFI: American Megatrends Inc. P1.00 05/30/2012

 

I don't quite understand what you mean. Are you saying that your optical drive doesn't show in Computer or Device Manager?

 

plodr's instructions are for Windows 7 but, should work in Windows Vista. You should also download and install Service Pack 2 for your system. Microsoft support for Service Pack 1 ended in 2010 so, you're missing a lot of Security Updates.

 

Reboot your system without any usb devices connected and check if your cd drive shows up. That would give some proof of what plodr said.