DVD Drive not showing up in Windows 8? Here’s a fix

Ashwin November 6, 2012

I recently installed Windows 8 Pro on my computer and everything was working fine until I had to write something on to a DVD and to my surprise found there was no DVD drive in the Windows Explorer or the Device Manager. I knew the drive was working fine, because I had installed Windows 8 from a bootable DVD.

A quick google search proved that I wasn’t alone in facing this issue. And a simple fix was available too.

Here’s what you need to do :

Right click on the Start Tile and select “Command Prompt (Admin)”.

Type the following in the command prompt window:

reg.exe add “HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi\Controller0” /f /v EnumDevice1 /t REG_DWORD /d 0x00000001

Make sure you type it as given above, including the quotation marks.

Press Enter and reboot the computer.

Right click on the Start Tile and select File Explorer and check whether the DVD drive is recognised by Windows 8

If this helped you, please let us know by dropping a comment below.

Source: Avinashtech forum and Microsoft Answers

About the author: Ashwin is a Business Graduate, but loves writing about Computer Softwares and Android Apps. You can bet that he is testing something on his phone almost everyday.

5 comments… add one

ron Link Reply
dvd drive is not showing up in win 8..tried your help..no good..comes up with “REG/? for usage…..operation such as query ..save..compare..add load export etc absolutely no help This computer is barely a month old and the driver doesn’t show up.. not good
- Ashwin Link Reply
  Hi Ron,
  I think the command might not have been accepted by the registry. It shouldn’t give you the “options for REG/? for usage”.
  First make sure you are running the command prompt with administrator rights. And this time, try copying the following command and paste it, to avoid any typos.
  reg.exe add “HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi\Controller0” /f /v EnumDevice1 /t REG_DWORD /d 0x00000001
  (Right click in the command prompt window and select paste). Then reboot.
  If it still doesn’t work, open Device Manager and check if the DVD drive is displayed there, or if you get any exclamation marks. If you get one, try uninstalling the driver and reboot.
Helen Link Reply
My Windows 8.1 now sees the dvd drive. Thanks!
- Ashwin Link Reply
  You are welcome Helen, and thanks for dropping by 🙂
Jason Link Reply
I have tried this several times. It does not work for me. The drive does not even show up. I installed Windows 8 from a cd so I know it works. It also shows up in Bios. I am running as system administrator. I copy and paste the cmd. I have also tried typing it. I get
Error Invalid Key name
Type “Reg Add /?” for usage