Bit of a Tough One: Cd/dvd drive uninstalled itself!

[Decapone]

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Hi all.
I have a tough problem here which i hope to god someone can please help me with...
Basically, the other day i noticed my cd/dvd drive was missing from 'my computer'. I have had this problem once before but after restarting the system twice the cd drive reappeared and there was no problem after. Now when this happened again i did the same as i did last time (restarted my comp a few times).This made no change whatsoever, so i began searching the net for people with similar problems. I found this problem isnt uncommon at all and followed all the information i could find from various websites, mostly involving changing registry settings and device manager showing exclamation marks next to the drive etc. I found that device manager doesnt even show my drive at all! I then performed a search for installed hardware on my sys. It showed my 'C' and 'D' (partitioned) drive as installed, but it said the cd/dvd drive(e) was uninstalled. I then looked thru sys information history and it turned out that my drive had been removed or uninstalled on the 6th of june(which was nothin i've intentionally done).
The next step was to sys restore to just before that date, which i tried to do at least 10 times before the 6th, but not one of the SR points will work(it goes thru the normal procedure of restoring; it restarts, then after i log in, it says the restore couldnt be completed and that 'nothin has been changed', so i cannot restore at all either. I have spoke to the robots at HP but all they can seem to tell me is to take my laptop apart (which theres no chance!) The light is on on the cd/dvd drive and cd's do spin around in the drive so i know it is connected.

sorry for going so in-depth, i just wanna make sure u know exactly what steps i have taken so far, so to save a little time..

Please someone help us as I'm goin mad with this prob!
Thanks all