Can't see optical drives

[theinstag8tor]

I have a desktop that I can't see my optical drives......I've powered down the system...unhooked both optical drives and rebooted the system but still can't see the drives... I'm running a quad core system with windows vista 32 bit...it has done this in the past and i've been able to unhook the drives and reboot the system and they showed back up...but now it's not cooperating.....any ideas?

 

[popatim]

are they being seen in the bios?

 

[theinstag8tor]

are they being seen in the bios?

no they are not...

 

[theinstag8tor]

IDE drive? Master/Slave problem? Cable problem? are they old drives?

they are ide drives master and slave pins have been set since new.....this problem has happened before.....but the old fix isnt working this time....