I am having a problem with my cd rw drive. It stopped reading discs and then disappeared from my computer entirely, how can I get it back?
thanks in advance

is your CD-drive properly connected with the right jumpers ? make sure the IDE cable isnt loose or the power line. try going into the bios and auto-detect it. maybe you disabled the device in XP? right click any storage device then click hardware your cd drive and then properties > enable

yes its all connected, the read light flashes when a cd is inserted but fails to read it. How do I auto detect in bios, how do I get to BIOS? My dvd-drive has also disappeared now, could this be the result of a virus?

When you first power on your computer runs thru a process of reading your memory and detecting drives etc. This is your BIOS. Different manufacturers have different ways to work here, for example my HP Vectra asks me to press F2 to enter set-up where I can make changes to the BIOS. There is also a choice of boot menu & summary. My summary is automatic; in other words it shows me all the drives it detects plus my memory count. If the BIOS does not see your drives than neither will Windows.

Here is a google search you can browse:
Lost CD DVD Drives

As to the virus posibility you should download HiJack This & post the log into the Spyware, Adware and Viruses section of this forum.

HiJack This

Good Luck