optical drive does not appear in windows 10

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Level 1

8 points

optical drive does not appear in windows 10

I upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10 and everything appears fine except that the iMac 2011's optical drive no longer functions. I inserted an install DVD and it does not appear in devices, nor am I able to eject it from my keyboard. It worked fine in Windows 7 just a few days ago.

I cannot find the optical drive even listed on the Windows device manager screen either.

When I reboot to Mac, the DVD appears and can be ejected. Is this a driver issue or something deeper?

iMac (27-inch Mid 2011), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)

Posted on Aug 9, 2015 8:20 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

BLooDiK

Level 1

4 points

Apr 27, 2016 6:45 AM in response to Whalegon

Solution is simple, but it took me many hours of trying.

The trick is simple, there must be BOOTABLE CD/DVD inserted (f.e. Windows10 installation DVD) in the drive during the powering on the computer.

Then the optical drive is recognized by the Windows.

Michal

(iMac 21.5 mid 2011, Windows 10 in Bootcamp)

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Answer 2

Whalegon Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 10, 2015 10:35 PM in response to Loner T

Not sure if I follow. I downloaded the bootcamp installer (64bit) and found the appleoddinstaller64.exe, but after running through the process, the Superdrive is still missing. Perhaps there is something I missed in the install?

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Answer 3

Rudegar

Level 10

180,798 points

Aug 11, 2015 5:08 AM in response to Whalegon

the optical drive use a generic driver which windows should be able to find itself it's not a bootcamp special apple driver

my imac mid 2011 21" imac found the dvd-rw drive at once

after I digitally upgraded windows8.1 towindows 10 which it did by not deleting my user/ data but taking everything else and backing it up in

windows.old dir and making a clean install

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Answer 4

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 10, 2015 4:36 AM in response to Whalegon

Please re-install AppleODDInstaller64.exe (or AppleODDInstaller.exe) as appropriate with Administrative Privileges and compatibility mode to be W7/W8 as appropriate for the driver.

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Answer 5

Whalegon Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 11, 2015 9:01 AM in response to Rudegar

Are you suggesting that I find the generic driver and install that?

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Answer 6

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 11, 2015 1:47 PM in response to Whalegon

The installer executable needs to be run with Administrative privileges and with computability set to Windows 7/8 (since this is the original OS of the driver).

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Answer 7

Whalegon Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 16, 2015 1:11 PM in response to Loner T

Unfortunately that didn't work. I am able to run the installer in compatibility mode as administrator, and it appears it run properly, but the Superdrive does not appear.

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