Problem with DVD ROM when installing iTunes

No one will answer you, my friend. The problem is that each time iTunes is installed on a Windows PC, the registry key for the CD/DVD player is corrupted. It's been this way since iTunes was released for Windows. Apple has no fix, in fact, doesn't even recognize that iTunes is corrupting the registry when installed. There will be no help from Apple anytime soon.

Of course, when the Registry is corrupted in this way, you lose contact with the CD/DVD player.

There is a way to get back access to the CD/DVD drive in Windows, which works most of the time (but not always):

Do this:
1) Open Start Menu
2) If the "Run" command is on the Menu, enter this text: "regedit" then hit Enter, then continue with step 3. below.
2a) If the Run command is NOT on the Menu, do this:
i.) Right-click on Start Button, choose "Properties" from popup.
ii.) Make sure "Start Menu" tab is selected. IF not, click on "Start Menu" tab.
iii.) Click on "Customize" button.
iv.) Navigate list until "Run Command" is displayed, and make sure a checkmark is in box beside it. If not, place a checkmark there.
v.) Click on "Ok"
3.) Enter "Regedit" in Run command line. Then strike "Enter" key.
4.) Once Regedit opens, navigate to "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Class\HKEY LOCALMACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE1 0318}"
5) Look for key (on right side) labeled "UpperFilters" and delete this key (right click on "UpperFilters" and choose "Delete").
6) Exit Regedit and re-boot.

Your CD/DVD drives should now be restored.
However, you will get an error from iTunes each time you start it up telling you to repair or reinstall iTunes. IGNORE IT, or you will simply lose your CD/DVD drives once again.

I've proven this over and over, countless times. Yet Apple refuses to do anything about this, instead chooseing to continue corrupting the Windows Registry.

Donald L McDaniel

I posted in another forum, but this is related to the problem I am having. In earlier iTunes version I was able to delete the upper/lower filters in the registry which made the optical drive read once again. However, after updating to version 7.5 (when the new iPhone firmware version became available) I attempted to the same thing and was certain it had worked (as device manager showed no cautions or errors). But, when I attempted to use the optical drive, none of the contents could be read. Opening a Windows Explorer window to show the computer>dvd drive the green progress bar just continued to move, however the contents never became visible. I had to do a system restore to get optical drive functionality. Are there any fixes in the newer version (where I can at least go back to deleting the upper/lower filters in the registry) that will allow some functionality?

Thanks for your response!

AS I've written, friend, you will get no help from Apple on this matter, since in their opinion, it is Windows fault in their thinking.

You are stuck between a rock and a hard place, my friend. You have exactly two choices: a working iTunes with a non-working CD/DVD drive, or a working CD/DVD drive and an error each time iTunes is started.

Since I use my CD/DVD drives for much more than importing/exporting music to/from iTunes, I choose a working CD/DVD drive and an error each time I open iTunes.

Microsoft says (rightly) that iTunes is corrupting the REgistry, while Apple says (wrongly) that Windows is "breaking" iTunes import/export functions. As long as Apple has the attitude it has, there will be no permanent fix.

NO fixes from Apple, at least. They simply choose to place the blame on Microsoft rather than themselves. Evidently, they don't know how to fix the problem. And Microsoft won't, since Apple refuses to admit they have a problem. After all, Microsoft has no more right to backward-engineer the Apple software than Apple has to backward-engineer Microsoft's OS code.

They could purchase a few site licenses for the Microsoft development tools, but that could cost in the millions of dollars for many seats. It would also cost something much more important than dollars: It would also cost Apple a great deal of hubris to sink low enough as to put their programmers to work developing Windows code (that "evil SlOperating System", Notorious in its Notoriety for being prone to "heavily-weighted spaghetti-code") (i.e., "Microsoft/Assembler/C/C++/C#", with esoteric header files filled with a cornucopia of constructural and contextual codes concocted in the strange collection of verbs, nouns, and their objects from a deep data store.

Anyway, Apple has to open up to the Windows paradigm (much of which is offered royalty-free), and live up to its reputation of being advocates of "Open Source".

Anyway, no help from Apple, as far as I know. IF I want CD/DVD drives available to Windows at the cost of gaining an idiotic error message from iTunes, then I can always hack iTunes to stop getting the error message.

This is my choice as a Windows user.
As long as Apple remains in the Market place with Windows, it must remember that the user (eg., "the Customer") is the ultimate chooser of how software is written, presented, and used in Windows, with the understanding that he must refrain from using unlicensed calls to the OS. If Apple wants our business, it must also respect our wishes.

I realize that this is an unfamiliar stance to see in an Apple forum, but it is a familiar attitude to almost any Windows user. In the Apple world, Steve Jobs rules the roost. In the Windows world, Joe Lunchpail rules the roost. This is a fact of the Market, not conjecture and corporate loyalty. As a general rule, if the writer fails to please the customer, he doesn't get Supper very often, or a poorer one more often-than-not. The happier the customer is, the more Chinese Happy Family Meals or Steak dinners the writer can expect to see in his future.

Donald L McDaniel

Well, well. . .finally someone has told us the truth. I have been wrestling with this same situation for a month now. Two weeks into the failure and many hours with both HP and Apple support I was finally told by an Apple tech that there are no plans for a fix to the disappearing optical drive and that it would be very low on their priorty list, if at all.

It would have been helpful had I been told earlier on that nothing was to be done or better yet, informed at purchase not to buy Apple.

The really disheartening point is, I use iTunes simply to update my iPhone. I had previously never had a version of iTunes on any of my PC's. And now, even the registry hack doesn't even work. Again, I have not tried it with the newest version of iTunes, but updating to the 7.5 version then deleting the upper/lower filters in the registry proved to get rid of the device manager error, but my optical drive still wouldn't work! I suppose I'll just have to keep view on the web for iPhone updates, install iTunes, update the phone, then do a system restore .

I'm afraid that Apple does not want the truth if it comes from a person described variously as a "troll", "Windows Fan Boy", and other such hateful names. I'm not very popular among the Apple fan base, I guess. But I still say what needs to be said to those with open minds and hearts. If I tend to shoot from the hip a little sooner than others do, or be harsher in my words than others, chalk it up to long experience trying to talk reason to a bunch of unlearned adults rather than predjudice and hatred.

As to your comment "It would have been helpful...", no one seems to have put 2 and 2 together enough to come to the conclusion I and a few others have reached. I mean, it's not as if there were no direct connection: "Install iTunes, lose your CD/DVD drives"; "Fix iTunes, lose your CD/DVD drives again." It seems pretty obvious to me. But what am I? In the whole scheme of things, just a momentary flash of light in the darkness. All who read my words will forget who wrote them tomorrow. Hopefully, they will remember the words, if not the one who wrote them.


Donald L McDaniel

Glad you have access to your CD/DVD drive once again.

Don't forget that you will continue to receive an error upon starting iTunes. Ignore it, and do NOT follow the directions it gives, or you will once again have a non-working CD/DVD drive. And it's not as if the drive quits working. Windows just loses touch with it because of a corrupted Registry key.

Just remember that the odds are that there is nothing wrong with your drive, so don't go out and purchase a new one, thinking that will fix the problem.

Also, maybe I'm being too harsh in my criticism of Apple. After all, they do not write Windows programs for a living. I don't believe there is any malice in their seeming inability to fix this problem.

As I've said in the past, Apple makes great computers. If I could afford a Mac Pro right now, I would definitely purchase one for a Vista platform. I used to own iMacs, but sold them to pay for a PC, since it is possible to upgrade the hardware on a PC, but isn't on an iMac. It just costs too much money to own Macintoshes, sadly. For the same price as a Mac Pro, I can purchase two PCs of similar power and quality.

Anyway, I am going off-topic now, so I must be careful, or they will pull my posts or kick me off this forum. I've already had one warning.

Glad you got it fixed for now.

Donald L McDaniel

Don't let your impression of Apple "sink" very much. They are doing the best they can under the circumstances. If they weren't weighed down by OS X, they would make the best platforms of all.

I think you are being way to kind to Apple. I greatly resent paying good money for an iPod that I planned to use with my new laptop computer only to find after installing iTunes that my optical drive disappears. . .repeatedly. . .and then am told by Apple that they know about the problem and have little (if any) intention of finding a fix!

I've been having the same CD/DVD problems,and I appreciate the information I've read here.

The question for me remains, how do I backup my iTunes library? (Without the iTunes back-up feature working, can I save it to a portable HD?)

Thanks again!

Hmmmm...

1) AFIK, the iTunes Library "backup" function does NOT back up the media files themselves, only the files containing your library information.

2) Here's how I backup my iTunes library:
a) In Windows, I copy the entire iTunes folder to an external drive. This will save both the media files themselves, as well as the iTunes library information (which is, after all basically, just an index file).
b) Then, when I wish to reinstall my media and library after say, reinstalling my OS, I just install iTunes, WITHOUT searching for media files, then copy my backup to the HD.
i) If you have XP, copy the "iTunes" folder to "C:\Documents and Settings\Your Profile\My Documents\My Music", making sure to overwrite the existing "iTunes" Folder, making sure iTunes is NOT RUNNING when you copy the files.
ii) If you have Vista, copy the "iTunes" folder to C:\...Users\Your Profile\Music\iTunes" -- again, making sure iTunes is not running.

Once the Library is copied in entirety, just start iTunes, and your library will be recreated in entirety from the media files and the index files now contained in the "iTunes" folder.

Hopefully, you did the right thing, and made sure to set iTunes to organize your media files and folders. Otherwise, this method will not work. If not, well, you will have to ask someone else for help. Sorry if that is the case.

Donald L McDaniel

i really don't know why installing iTunes seems to corrupt the Registry key.
All I know is that removing the UpperFilters subkey causes your optical drive(s) to appear to Windows once again, and subsequently reinstalling or repairing iTunes corrupts the key again.

This must be very low on Apple's list of priorities indeed. It's not been fixed in at least the last 2 years that I know of. IN fact, EVERY iteration of iTunes keeps corrupting the key, and the fix is ALWAYS the same: Remove the UpperFilters subkey.

My personal opinion is that the key is not necessarily corrupted, but that Apple uses a driver (the Gear driver) which is incompatible with the Windows driver model.

Sadly, however, this key is necessary for the proper working of iTunes import/export fuctions, and Apple seems to have absolutely no intention of removing a key which would break those functions. That this shows a complete contempt for Windows users (who comprise the MAJORITY of those who use iTunes) seems to have escaped Apple entirely.

I wonder how long they can continue treating us with contempt. Eventually, we will set our Apple toys aside, and then they can say goodbye to their strangle hold on Windows media applications.

They would make many friends in the Windows world if they did fix this, however.

Donald L McDaniel

Message was edited by: orthocross

Message was edited by: orthocross

Yea this is making me mad. I did delete the filters but when I do that, I than can't burn cds using itunes... So it's either being able to import them and not burn them, or burn them and not import. This whole thing is completely ********.

It is as bad as you say.
However, one thing you've failed to add: If you "fix" itunes by reinstalling iTunes or repairing it, you also lose access to your CD/DVD drives under Windows as well as iTunes.

DONT FIX iTunes if yu want to be able to use your CD/DVD drive under Windows in general.

I guess you have to choose between iTunes and Windows Media Player. Sad, SAD, SAD!!!

Donald L McDaniel