For uknown reasons, both of the CD-rom drives in my computer disappeared last night. If I uninstall the "Secondary IDE Channel" and then search for new hardware, both of the CD-rom drives show up, although not fully functional. After a restart, both of the CD-rom drives disappear, and I have to repeat the steps above to even get some CD-rom drive functionality.
For solutions, I have tried the "registry" solution. That solution was attempted by using the vbs script
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts/xp_cd_dvd_fix.vbs
Any other possible solutions would be greatly appreciated, although I have to warn I am not extremely computer literate, so I might request detailed instructions.