My CD drive just disappears

[ShawnD1]

From time to time, Windows tells me that I don't have a CD drive. I'll be using the drive then poof Windows can't see the drive. When I restart the computer, the drive is there again. I have 2 computers that have this problem.
Is there a way to fix it?

Both computers have WinXP Home. One of the computers uses an HP CD writer, the other computer uses a Retail Plus CD writer.

[wallie_x]

Using the CD drives for what? I have problems with Win XP period when it comes to CD-ROM's or CD-RW drives. Especially with the secondary IDE channel that has two CD-ROMS or CD-RW's hooked to it. With the primary channel I have had no problems (only the HD is on it) its the secondary, and at times I have had the secondary slave CD-ROM 'disappear'. Are your CD-RW(s) configured correctly as Master/Slave by the jumpers and by appropriate place on the IDE cable etc? (Using the 'Cable Select' setting has never worked for me.) Are your chipset drivers up to date as far as being compatible with Win XP? Also, if you have the BIOS set to 'Shadow the BIOS" into memory ('System BIOS Cacheable' or some other BIOS shadowing feature) that could also be a problem. In the BIOS check the IDE channels in the "Standard CMOS Setup" and make sure '32bit Mode' is enabled. In some BIOS's the default setting is 'Off'.
If your systems are old you may need to flash the BIOS(s) to get them to work correctly.