ML on MP swapped upper & lower optical drives

I've got 2 SATA burners installed in my early 2008 2x2.8. They are differnt brands (upper is Lite-On, lower is Sony) and both are relatively new- I installed in the past year and used under Lion. When I first installed them, it was trial and error hooking up the SATA cables to each drive to make the eject key open the upper drive and option-eject open the lower.
A clean install of ML swapped this.. the eject key opened the lower drive, and option-eject opened the upper.
So, I swapped the cables going to each drive, but the eject key still only opens the lower drive.
Does anyone know how to fix this?

Memory dropping out is a sign that it has failed. Those problems can be made to go away, but usually not for long, and definitely not permanently.
Keep a close eye on it. If you ever thought of doing a memory upgrade, now may be the time.
Use Apple Menu > About this Mac > ( More Info ) > Memory ...
... to take a look more frequently. Any that are missing or half their expected size, or status other than "OK" have died.

Similar Messages

Thinkpad Edge S430 - Swapping out optical drive for HDD?

Hi There
I just ordered myself an S430 with a 128gb SSD HDD included. I didn't see an option to replace the optical drive with a secondary HDD (e.g. a 500gb) so have the optical drive in as standard. Now, I would have rather changed this out for a secondary HDD or for a Blu-Ray drive, thinking I could do this myself once bought...Looking at other posts it looks like you can swap out the optical drive for a Blu-Ray drive, although I would preferably get a secondary drive over the Blu-Ray, but I'm hesitant over a few things:
Is this possible to do myself (swapping out for either secondary HDD or blu-ray drive) without voiding the warranty? (I got it with 2 year warranty)
Is it actually possible to do at all? (swapping out for a secondary HDD)
Thanks
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Unfortunately, I have found no hard drives that are compatible for your optical bay. I do believe the reason you can change out your optical drive is to change to a blue-ray or CD, or DVD, maybe a player or burner. But like I said, I have found no hard drive that can fit in your optical drive. You may be able to find what I could not but I have been looking all over the web.
I know how you feel, my computer at home can not have any hard drives in the optical bay as well.
Best regards,
Alex
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Replacing MacBook Pro 4,1's optical drive with SSD

Has anyone swapped out their optical drive and added a SSD in its place? Or alternatively removed their optical drive, put the HDD in its place, and installed a SSD in the HDD's original location? On a pre-unibody MacBook Pro 4,1. I've read many posts of people doing so with the unibody models, but am curious to hear the results of anyone who has done it with this older model.
Thanks!

I have just recently purchased an "OPTIBAY" from here:http://store.mcetech.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=OBSXGB- MB15&Category_Code=STORHDOPTIBAY
And I bought this SSD:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820721107 (which was $65 on sale the other day) to hold the OS and apps. Hope this helps.

Mac Pro optical drive problems

I have a 2009 Mac Pro and have been having problems with optical drives I've installed in the lower bay. I initially installed a Toshiba drive that had Lightscribe technology, as I needed this for my wife's business and my Lacie external Lightscribe drive finally died. This drive worked great except for a loud "click, click" noise that it made every few minutes when not in use. I had originally attributed this noise to a hard drive starting or stopping but after repeated attempts to isolate the drive were unsuccessful, I resorted to using my old mechanic's stethescope and the noise seemed to be coming from the lower optical drive. I confirmed this by opening its tray and leaving it open which got rid of the noise. It was a very annoying noise, easily heard in my bedroom across the hall when the machine was asleep (and I wasn't). I decided to change it out for a Blu-Ray drive as the prices had come down out of the stratosphere. I bought a Pioneer drive from OWC and after having it disappear and reapper on me, behavior verified as a problem by checking these boards, I exchanged it for an LG unit. This one works fine and seems to stay recognized by the Apps that use it but a "click" is back. This occurs with about the same frequency as the Toshiba but is a single click and is much quieter. There is no periodic noise from the factory Superdrive. Someone suggested somewhere that this could be caused by Spotlight trying to access the drive. This doesn't seem logical as the noise only happens when there is no disk mounted. Would there be any software that would periodically "ping" the optical drive, even when the system was asleep? I can live with the noise from this one but am still curious if others have had this problem, and may have come up with a solution. Thanks, Ted
The drive installed now is an LG model number: WH12LS39KMP, the previous noisy drive was a Toshiba SH-S223

Repeated starting and stopping hard drives is not a good idea, and should be limited to laptops running on battery power. With most, the heads rub on the discs while starting or stopping. Drives specs usually allow only 25,000 to 50,000 starts. Temperature changes between running and sleeping puts stress on electronics, and can cause earlier failures. Also the starting current stresses the motur circuitry.
Apple optical drives have special firmware. If you look in the "ATA" section of "System Profiler" (Utilities folder) you should see that the Apple supplied drive supports "Low Power Polling". This may be why Apple optical drives don't have problems with drive sleep mode.

Mid-2010 Mac Mini, dead optical drive: Are any slim Firewire DVD burners compatible?

The optical drive on my Mac Mini seems to have died prematurely, as the OEM drives are known to do. Estimated cost of replacing the internal component: $170. And it would be the exact same model Apple optical drive, not a more robust one.
Now very reluctantly thinking of adding yet another peripheral. USB ports are pretty well filled but I don't use the Firewire port for anything.
Trouble is, since Apple discontinued Firewire, the manufacturers of Mac-compatible optical drives aren't making Firewire models any more.
There are a few recent Firewire DVD burners from PC peripheral manufacturers, such as Acer, Aopen, Dell, Pioneer, Sony (Amazon reviews say it's restricted to burning Sony media) in a small "slim" form factor.
Anyone have information about their compatibility with Firewire 800 on mid-2010 Mac mini, Mac OS 10.10.1 Yosemite?

There are some steps involved which may translate to tedium,
as noted in the repair guide for the Mid 2010 Mini from iFixit.
•Mac Mini - Mid 2010 Repair Guide - iFixit:
https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Mac_Mini_Mid_2010
At about Step 25, of an overall rated Difficult process, you can
see the Optical Drive, and likely be at a point to install replace-
ment, then reverse the process; paying heed to advice given.
•Mac Mini - Model A1347 - Optical Drive Replacement - iFixit:
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac+mini+Model+A1347+Optical+Drive+Replacement/3167
At least you can get into this computer. Be sure to have a spare
optical drive cable and other possible items that may get broken
in the process. Oh there also is a PRAM battery in this computer
that may or may not need replacement while it is open...
If at one point, if several parts were to be replaced at one time, a
visit to a service technician becomes very cost effective. Find one
that will install the parts you may get from third-party sources. If
you know someone at a college computer lab, they may be able
to perform the swap, test their work, and be done, in short order.
Or, chose to use an external inexpensive 'superdrive' equivalent.
I'd heard the LG brand was among some that work, and can also
be used to boot the computer from System DVD or utility discs...
It is a USB drive, can burn DVD/CD media, and is not costly.
The ability to swap out the defective optical drive, and replace it
with an SSD or second storage drive, may be a way to go; but
it also would be at least as tedious as optical drive replacement.
This may add value to the device, in a resale situation later.
That would use the 'drive doubler' idea referred to at macsales.
In the above main guide, is a primer on how to swap out the optical
drive and replace it with a second hard disk drive or solid state drive.
Similar to what the OWC site says, but they have a good kit, too.
Good luck & happy computing!

Swapping optical drives

Hope this is the right spot. I have a ever-falling-further-into-disrepair 867 Mhz 12" g4 Alubook. I recently got a great deal, on a used, in pieces, 1.5 ghz model with broken optical drive. I thought...sweet I'll swap drives and have a killer, newer, faster laptop without buying a macbook (which I'd love).
So I did it, and just put my old HD in (doh!) It didn't recognize any disks when I put them in because the hardware profile was for the 867. I figured okay, I have another HD so I'll put the 867 mhz back together and do a target disk install of leopard on the new laptop and call it good. But now, with the 867 back together it won't recognize any sort of disk put into the computer. In disk utility it will mount and say **gb MATCHITACD (** being whatever size the disk is), but the disk won't actually mount in the Finder.
Did I somehow kill my optical drive, and how?
I could buy a new optical drive for the 1.5, but I'm wondering if it will give me the same problem (ie not recognize disks because of the hardware profile screw up, and if so how can I boot from the drive to install an OS)
Please help. I ordered a new combo drive. It will be a few days. I'm stuck. Can't install OS because I have two PPC's with non working drives and my iMac is Intel so no dice installing onto a APM formatted drive...
Thanks

okay, an update. I finally got around to sticking an audio disc in and Lo and Behold it reads CD's. Then I noticed something I skipped before in System Profiler
MATSHITACD
RW:
Model: MATSHITACD
RW
Revision: BA1
Detachable Drive: No
Protocol: ATAPI
Unit Number: 0
Socket Type: Internal
Low Power Polling: No
Power Off: No
Basically the powerbook sees this the cw 8122 combo drive as a CD-RW drive only rather than a CD-RW plus DVD-ROM drive.
How did this happen? is it a partial hardware failure? Is there any way to reinstall the firmware/driver. I have alread archived and installed, and then completely wiped and reinstalled via firewire.
This should be seeen as the combo drive now.
Anyone have any ideas?

Swapping optical drive for SSD - How to set it up?

I'm going to purchase a Crucial M4 128GB SSD for my Late 2011 13" i7 Macbook Pro. I don't use my optical drive at all, so I figure I may as well swap that out for my current 750GB HDD, and put the SSD in the main harddrive bay. I know full well how to physically install the respective drives, but my confusion comes when cloning the current HD onto the SSD, then moving all your media files (music, movies, documents etc) over to the HD, while keeping your system files and applications on the SSD.
So what I really need, is a PROPER in depth guide from the start of the setup process (First boot after installation of physical drives) detailing how to copy my system files and applications over to the SSD so I can boot from it, while keeping my data & media files on the HD and being able to access them all as I normally would through finder.
Any and all responses are appreciated - I need all the advice i can get!

If you use a cloning software program it will move, actually copy, everything from your original drive to the SSD.
No need to anything after that to get the SSD to boot and have all your programs and data.

Swapping OPtical Drive for SSD

I am going to swap my optical drive for an SSD to make everything far more faster. My computer is out of warranty so it won't be affected. I was just wondering what will happen to my existing hard drive when I clone the old hard drive and copy it on to the SSD? Obviously I will make it so my computer boots my SSD, does my old hard drive act in the same way an external hard drive does? Will I be able to save things on there just as easily as before?
Thanks

Go talk to Bmer over here
http://macosg.com/
What he did was move the hard drive to the optical bay and then replaced the boot drive with a SSD with a kit, he can walk you though it all as he's good with SSD's and all it's headaches. The kit also makes the Superdrive a external optical drive.
SSD's make good boot and program drives, but not a good file drive, use the hard drive for that instead.
One of the drawbacks is you can't boot from the OS X install disks or Windows disk or even perhaps not even Linux disks on a external optical drive.
So you'll have to learn all about Carbon Copy Cloner and option bootable clones too.
Download the free MacTracker and find out your SATA, as that can limit your SSD speed and could save you money as you buy the slower older SATA SSD's to match your hardware instead of the higher more expensive ones you can't use anyway.
Good Luck.

Very simple step-by-step guide for Optical Drive to SSD swap?

When my MacBook Pro comes out of warranty I'd like to remove the optical drive and put in an SSD, to hold my apps and OS. I have a 13" MBP, early 2011, with a 500GB SATA HDD (5400 RPM).
I'm generally handy with tech stuff, but having looked into this, am a bit uncertain on the best way forward, so am hoping to get advice from more experienced types on this forum. Issues and questions so far are...
1) Stage 1 - determining specs and approach
The first issue for me is to determine...
- Whether it's better to house the SSD in the HDD bay and move the latter into the optical drive bay, or whether I should leave the HDD where it is and put the SSD in the optical bay. Given my MBP model, which is best?
- What SSD is best? I’m currently looking at this, which includes a data transfer kit. Crucial's M4s seem to be pretty good for this sort of thing:
http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=B9BCBF75A5CA7304
- What cables, adapters, bays, software etc are appropriate for my model? I’m based in Australia and will likely order much of the kit from abroad, so if I miss anything, it’s likely to be a (frustrating!) wait.
- I’m also keen to put a case around the formerly-internal optical drive so need to figure out cables and cases for that.
2) Stage 2 - Doing the swap
Seems that the best thing is to find a super-simple how-to video.
As there are quite a few out there, any opinions on ones that are great (and ones that are to be avoided!) would be welcome.
3) Advice for use once installed.
Assuming I’ve gone through the process correctly, I'll put my OS and apps on the SSD. Then...
- Can I simply delete the OS residing on the HDD? Understandably I want to avoid any bad-or-irreversible-without-great-pain mojo.
- Ditto for apps. Is there anything required to ensure any settings and preferences don’t get lost?

Okay - I'm getting closer to doing this.
I'm leaning toward getting this bay for the HDD and this enclosure for the optical drive, to make it an external. Fortunately it's available from an Aussie retailer. For me it's a little hard to figure out from the description whether this only works to shift the HDD to the optical drive bay and whether that means I'd need a separate bay/adapter to mount the SSD in the boot drive location, so any advice would be wonderful.
This is the SSD I'm looking to get: 256GB Crucial m4 2.5" SSD with Data Transfer Kit.
And I'd get CCC. Is there anything else I'd need (cables, bays)?
And a last question: I have a number of apps that are registered/authorised to my current machine - Kindle, iTunes and Final Draft. Do I need to de-authorise them, before loading them on my SSD, or will the applications see them as still being part of the current machine?
Thanks again for any help!
GG

Swap optical drive with SSD for 4k video editing?

I've already swapped the original HD with an SSD 500gb and replaced the optical drive with the original HD as a secondary drive. That has worked nicely for a couple years. But now that I'm doing intense 4k video editing, I want to replace the HD in the optical bay with a 1tb SSD.
My question to you: Will the SSD perform at the same speed in the optical bay as it would in the main bay as a secondary drive? Or is there a speed limitation on the optical bay periphery and as such it's not worth putting a fast drive in there?
What alternative options would you suggest for video editing? My late 2011 Macbook Pro 2.5ghz core i7 with 16gb ram stalls when editing 4k footage off a firewire g-raid. I figured an internal SSD would perform faster and as a double benefit make my files portable without need for an external drive.

I've already swapped the original HD with an SSD 500gb and replaced the optical drive with the original HD as a secondary drive. That has worked nicely for a couple years. But now that I'm doing intense 4k video editing, I want to replace the HD in the optical bay with a 1tb SSD.
My question to you: Will the SSD perform at the same speed in the optical bay as it would in the main bay as a secondary drive? Or is there a speed limitation on the optical bay periphery and as such it's not worth putting a fast drive in there?
What alternative options would you suggest for video editing? My late 2011 Macbook Pro 2.5ghz core i7 with 16gb ram stalls when editing 4k footage off a firewire g-raid. I figured an internal SSD would perform faster and as a double benefit make my files portable without need for an external drive.

Optical drives reads but wont write after swap

hello everyone, I bought an iMac G3 450MHz that had had a 'superdrive' fitted. It both read and wrote CD's and DVDs. I tested it out and it worked just fine, I even made a back up copy of my Tiger DVD with it. I wanted to put the optical drive into my beloved Flower Power 600 iMac CD-RW so ,to make sure all the drive cables etc weren't disturbed, I just removed the whole caddy with the HDD plus the optical drive plus all the connecting cables, and popped it into my Flower Power. It booted up fine so I loaded (via carbon copy cloner) the contents of my original HDD. Now, when I look in system profiler, the optical drive shows up as a read/write but will only read discs. If I put in a blank disc the iMac's OS doesn't see the blank disc. Funnily enough my copy of Toast does see it and Toast launches itself. As I want to be able to burn disc images using Disk Utility this is a bit of a problem for me. I might just add, as it may be of some interest, that whoever fitted the superdrive had the HDD jumpers set to Slave but this was how it was when it worked perfectly in the 450MHz it came in so this was how I left them. The other little problem is the iMac won't sleep but I can live with that.

The reason your hard drive is set to slave is because it shares the IDE bus with the optical drive. With the stock optical drive, the optical drive is set to slave and the hard drive is set to master. However, that superdrive is probably hardwired to master, so the hard drive needs to be slave. As long as one drive is slave and the other drive is master, it should work fine.
Are you using the exact same system installation from the 450 on the 600? If not, there was probably some special driver installed to enable the all the superdrive features. Toast is a third-party app that is designed to work with many different optical drives, so such a driver would be built into the software, which would explain why it works (and Disk Utility does not).
What company sold (and installed) this superdrive?

Swapping out optical drive for SSD

Early 2011, 15" Macbook Pro with Mavericks 9.1
So basically, I want to replace my optical drive with an SSD. Seen a few discussions on it, know basically how it works, am aware of the warranty voiding issue, and also aware of how people at apple who made my computer are 12034725801x smarter than me and I shouldn't do it. I'm gonna do it anyway.
What are the best brands for the superdrive slot to hold the second drive, and should I leave the HDD in the primary slot or move it to the secondary?
The first one is the main question. I've read that only the primary can boot, and if that's true, then it would have to be the SSD for sure. Confirmation would be nice.

Get the OWC DataDoubler bracket for your model. The SSD should replace the HDD. The HDD goes where the optical drive is located. What you need to do:
How to replace or upgrade a drive in a laptop
Step One: Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger, Leopard or Snow Leopard.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
Step Two: Remove the old drive and install the new drive. Place the old drive in an external USB enclosure. You can buy one at OWC who is also a good vendor for drives.
Step Three: Boot from the external drive. Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager appears. Select the icon for the external drive then click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Step Four: New Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your new hard drive (this is the entry with the
      mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of
      the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive
      is failing or has failed and will need replacing. Otherwise, click on the
      Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from
      the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended
      (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to
      GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and
      wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the
      drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main
      window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the
      Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to
      return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several
      hours depending upon the drive size.
Step Five: Clone the old drive to the new drive
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4. Check the box labeled Erase destination.
5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the
      Destination entry field.
6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the
      Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the new internal drive. Source means the old external drive.
Step Six: Open the Startup Disk preferences and select the new internal volume. Click on the Restart button. You should boot from the new drive. Eject the external drive and disconnect it from the computer.
If you wish to use your Home folder on the HDD instead of on the SSD:
How to use an SSD with your HDD
If you are going to use an SSD as a boot drive together with your existing HDD as the "data" drive, here's what you can do.
After installing the SSD you will need to partition and format the SSD using Disk Utility. Then, install OS X on the SSD. After OS X has been installed boot from the SSD. Use Startup Disk preferences to set the SSD as the startup volume.
Open Users & Groups preferences. Click on the lock icon and authenticate. CTRL- or RIGHT-click on your user account listing in the sidebar and select Advanced Options from the context menu.
You will see a field labeled "Home dir:" At the right end you will see a Change button. Click on it. In the file dialog locate the Home folder now located on the HDD (HDD/Users/account_name/.) Select the folder, click on Open button. Restart the computer as directed.
When the computer boots up it will now be using the Home folder located on the HDD.
Another more technical method involving the Terminal and aliases is discussed in depth here: Using OS X with an SSD plus HDD setup - Matt Gemmell. This is my preferred approach because I can select which of the Home's folders I want on the HDD and which I don't want. For example, I like to keep the Documents and Library folders on the SSD because I access their content frequently.
Be sure you retain the fully bootable system on your HDD in case you ever need it.

*urgent* - Swap 15" optical drive into 13" (both 2012)?

Can't get the drive to accept a disc. 'About This Mac' sees an optical drive installed, but MacBook Pro won't let a disc in...
Checked cables, SMC and PRAM resets. Any help much appreciated.
Supposed to sell tomorrow...
Cheers,
Damian

santabean2000 wrote:
Could it be a driver issue?
Possibly, I really do not know. I would access the iFixit.com and Powerbookmedic.com web sites and see if there are part numbers for the DVD drive for the two models. Though I would think unlikely, there could be two versions used.
Just a guess, reinstall the OSX. You have nothing to lose.
Ciao.

Optical Drive doesn't read DVD's

Hi, I own an HP Pavillion dv7 1279wm entertainment laptop. It came installed with Vista, but I installed a free upgrade to Windows 7 that I got from HP. I had a problem where the drive would not read anything; the disc would spin, but eventually the tray would automatically open and tell me to insert a disc. After using Microsoft FixIt, I was able to read CDs, but encountered the same problem when trying to load a DVD. Previous to using Microsoft FixIt, I did use device manager to uninstall the drive and then reboot so Windows 7 would automatically update the driver. I'm thinking that means that it's not a software problem, but if you can think of anything else I can do (short of swapping out drives because I don't have access to another drive) to rule out it being a software problem please let me know. I realize that combo drives typically use different lasers to read CDs and DVDs, so my guess is that the laser that reads DVDs has failed. If that is the case, where can I find the correct replacement part and how do I install it?
Thanks,
Kevin

Hi Kevin,
If you eject the optical drive tray, you should see just one laser situated towards the centre of the tray - different voltages are applied to this depending on whether it's reading a CD or DVD.
First of all, use a soft, non abrasive material such as cotton or a cotton bud and gently clean the lens.
Check if this has made any difference.
If it still doesn't read DVDs, try following the procedure under the sub-heading 'Let me fix it myself' on the link below to remove the Upper and Lower filters, restart the notebook and see if this helps the issue.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/982116
If it still doesn't read DVDs, the following procedure will test if your notebook can start from a bootable disc in the optical drive - the advantage of trying this is that it will rule out any possible Windows driver error as the CD/DVD drive is under the control of the Bios when starting the notebook. So if you find that the notebook will not boot from the DVD, then it's almost certainly a Hardware fault in the optical drive itself and it will need to be replaced.
Using another PC to create a Windows 7 Rescue DVD. Download the relevant ISO from the link below.
Windows 7 32bit
Windows 7 64bit
You need use an application such as ImgBurn to correctly burn the ISO to a DVD - a guide on using ImgBurn to write an ISO to a disc is Here. Once created, insert the DVD and then restart the notebook and see if it boots from this disc - if it does, let the first screen come up ( this will show repair options etc ) then just remove the DVD and restart the notebook. If the notebook will not boot from the DVD, it may just load straight into Windows.
Regards,
DP-K
****Click the White thumb to say thanks****
****Please mark Accept As Solution if it solves your problem****
****I don't work for HP****
Microsoft MVP - Windows Experience

Optical drive (CD/DVD burner) not detected by Windows - dv9812us

I've been dealing with the same or at least a similar situation for the past week.
I've got an HP dv9812us running Vista home premium SP 2. The drive is detected by the BIOS because it attempts to boot from the drive, the light blinks, and you can open the drive via the button. Once Windows starts booting, though, it quits working entirely. It doesn't show up in the Computer folder and it doesn't show up in the Device Manager.
So far, I have tried:
1) Following the suggestions listed by HP here:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00678214&tmp_track_link=ot_faqs/top_issues/en_...
- similar to the link given previously, only specific to a notebook rather than a PC
- includes suggestions for running MS FixIt for drive limits
- checking for the presence of the drive in Device Manager
- uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers in Device Manager (which I can't do because the device isn't listed in the Device Manager)
- and downloading and installing the latest firmware and software for the drive (also can't do because Microsoft's software doesn't detect the drive).
2) Following the suggestions listed here by Apple because this problem is apparently common in conjunction with the installation of iTunes with Vista: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2308
- repeats suggestion for download/reinstall for firmware/drivers for optical drive
- also: checking C:\Windows\System32\drivers folder for "afs.sys" or "afs2k.sys" files which may interfere with GEAR drivers for iTunes
- manually removing the GEAR drivers from your computer and registry and then reinstalling them.
3) Running the HP and Windows Update programs to make sure all of my software and firmware is up to date.
4) Uninstalling iTunes and downloading and reinstalling iTunes.
5) Physically removing and reinstalling the optical drive without powering up
6) Physically removing the drive, booting up, shutting down, reinstalling the drive, and booting up again.
7) Hard reset suggested by CherylG
8) Removing the optical drive from my roommate's Pavilion, exchanging the mounting bracket and bezel from mine, installing the known-good drive into my computer, and booting (everything was exactly the same as with my normal drive...worked in BIOS, quit working as soon as Windows began booting up)
9) Running sfc /scannow and found no corrupt files
10) Placing hammer where it can be seen by my laptop as sarcastically suggested by my friend Jason.
None of these have worked and I can't find any other suggestions listed anywhere. I'm keen on the iTunes issue simply because I hadn't really used the optical drive since I'd installed the newest version of iTunes and it had worked prior to that. Is there a way for me to find the drivers for the optical drive manually? Microsoft wants to find them itself, but since Windows doesn't detect the drive, all it does it tell me that Windows didn't detect the drive.

Hi, guys, I have had the exact same problem since the summer of 2010. Here's what I was able to find out.
Deleting upper/lower filters, running all those Fix Ya programs and other Microsoft crap is useless. This problem is most certainly has nothing to do with registry of any software on your computer. I took my HP 9620us to a couple of repair places and, they tried a lot of things and it appears that the root of this problem is a faulty motherboard connection. Of course, it costs about 400 bucks to fix it so I'm not sure I want to pay this kind of money.
Anyway, if somebody was able to fix it PLEASE post here to let us know. Again I am 99 per cent sure it's some piece of hardware in the motherboard.

ML on MP swapped upper & lower optical drives

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