Sims 2 messed me all up!! CD drive not recognized-Help please!!!

Ok so I got the game, so excited, installed it-then when I went to go play it I got an error saying that I needed to delete all cd/dvd emulators-I had Daemon-so I deleted it-so that error was fixed-I also did a full scan and fxed those issues, and a basic cleanup. Now the error I get is that it can't read my cd drive-and when I look on 'my computer' the cd drive isn't there at all!! It's gone, erased seemingly from the system-unrecognizable. My bro tells me that games now can detect any pirated software and when it detects it-it messes things up-I don't know-sounds weird-is that really true? I have xp-and if anyone needs more info-let me know. I've been trying to fix this since 1:00pm-it's now 8:53pm!! So frustrating. I'd appreciate any help from anyone!!
Thanks!

 

Some games will not install if they detect emulators or some burning software, but I've never heard of them trashing your system.

Anyway, the first thing I would try is to delete the CDRom from Device Manager and reboot to detect it again.

If that fails, try deleting the relevant controller and reboot.

If that fails still and you are sure the hardware is in working order and installed correctly, try using System Restore.