Jim wrote:

DOSbox is the only thing ive installed on my machine since the trouble has arrised. Is there any history of this? Is there a way to rectify? Ive tried removing them/reinstalling drivers but nothing will work.

DOSBOX is innocent here (Yes, I would bet on it.). It does not install anything into system. It just puts its files into one directory and creates icons and uninstall information.
It does not install anything else (no shared libraries, no meddling in registry etc.). I understand that it is possible to screw up system e.g. with VDMSound (no offence meant - I do not say it does that), because it installs depper into system.
But not DOSBOX...

Mirek

Hmm, then if its not that do you have any idea what it may be? I thought maybe the drive hardware might have failed, but wouldnt windows pick up on that? Also Id find it strange if both CDR and CDROM failed at exactly the same time despite one being 2yr old and one being 2 month old 😒

Jim - I have no idea if this wil help you, since it is about re-enabling AutoPlay. But it might reset some import settings for the drives?

Jim, if you are running Windows XP, check the services list. Run services.msc and look if "extractable storage devices" (roughly translated from Spanish) is enabled and running. I am not totally sure if it will make a difference or not, but no hurt in trying.

I tried both those things. Thanks for the suggestions, but they didnt work 🙁

Something strange though ... my CDR drive will read CDs that Ive burned myself just fine.