Optical drive gone?

The optical drive on my laptop has seemingly dissapeared, i can't find it through my computer and i can't install software or rip cd's, and the device manager cant figure out whats wrong.
Should i re-install windows or something? or should i consult the warranty?

Physically???? Or if its a driver problem you might have to reinstall windows.

If it is not being detected by windows, then it is most likely either loose or has failed. Either way, it is something that will be covered by the warranty, so you should bring it into your service center.

Can it be removed? Some can be taken out of the laptop so other components can be put in. You can see if it is loose or not set in place correctly.

When you put a disk in, does it spool up and try to read it? It could be dead.

If it is a newer laptop, within a year, I would contact the manufacturer. If it has been over a year, you could try and replace it yourself, but that would mean possibly opening the laptop up (if the CD/DVD drive doesn't come out) and replacing it.

2 things...either the drive electronics have failed or you recently uninstalled Roxio Toast, they replace the Win driver with their own and uninstalling deletes it rendering the drive useless....there are some instructions online for this. Google unistall Roxio and cd drive