Dvd not recognized by windows xp

Do they have power? Can you open/close trays? If not, it might be the power cable(s), make sure they are plugged in. Same goes for data cable(s), IDE or SATA.

There are 3 possibilities

Defective discs

Dirty Laser Lens

Defective dvd drive

Feel free to read material here http://club.cdfreaks.com/forumdisplay.php?f=62

Turn your computer off then check the power cable and the data cable (sata or IDE) make sure it is securely plugged in to the CD or DVD drive. Go to your BIOS (pressing DEL or F2, what ever in your motherboard manual) it should be detected by the BIOS if not check it again - you may get other cable (power or data) from another computer to do this. If it gets detected in your BIOS then it will be detected under the device manager. Always turn off your computer while plugging and un-plugging.

My DVD is detected in boot - but not in Win XP. How does that happen? How do I fix it? I've restarted several times - no luck. It is the only SATA drive, the rest are IDE.