I tried that before I ever posted my request on this site. and I deleted filters. and I tried an external drive (that works). this drive reads DVDs, no problem. But won't read CDs unless I boot from the CD, then it reads it fine. so the problem is the drive and Vista combination. And since it used to work before I had to restore the harddrive with the HP installation recovery disks, then it pretty much has to be the driver. But HP is being no help. So, I'm still looking for the driver for Vista for this drive.