iTunes Has Disabled My CD/DVD Drive - can anyone help ?

Hi,

I recently bought a 5th Generation iPod Video 30gb, and have some issues with the iTunes software.

I am running a fairly new (4/5 months old) Packard Bell PC with Windows XP Home and have Sonic RecordNow CD burning software.

Here's the problem....
When I tried to load the iTunes software from the CD that came in the box, it allowed me to install it, but then when I double-clicked the icon to launch it, I just got a Windows error message (the type that says windows has encountered an error and needs to close - would you like to send a report to Microsoft Yes/No). iTunes would not load at all.

Also, my CD/DVD drive then disappeared from the system. When I ran a check through System Tools, it said that the drivers had loaded properly, but that a CD/DVD device could not be found.

So, I did a System Restore to a few days before and the drive re-appeared and worked fine.

Next step, I downloaded iTunes from the Apple website. This time everything worked fine. I spent the entire day (much to the annoyance of my wife) transferring CDs to iTunes - no problems - iPod synchronised fine etc.

Then, a day later, I decided to carry on transferring my CD collection, but the CD drive has disappeared again - system tools says that the drivers have loaded correctly, but that a CD device cannot be found (Error 41).

Any ideas - I'd like not to have to do another restore, as I presume I'll lose all the CD data that I've transferred so far. Some other websites have suggested I edit the BIOS to point the system towards the CD drive. Slightly nervous about doing this (if indeed it's the right thing to do anyway) and wouldn't really know how.

Also, I did think about un-installing Sonic RecordNow and re-installing iTunes, but then I look in add/remove programs, it's not there.

I'm at a loss - any help would be greatly appreciated.

I await a response with eager anticipation.

Thanks,
Jon (United Kingdom).