Any deleted optical drive should be detected and re-installed upon reboot.
To start with the obvious: reseat all connections, maybe replace cabling.
Do you have more than one burning program? Any packet-writing software such as InCD, etc? Best not to have redundant, possibly conflicting burning progs. Packet-writing apps are notoriously prone to problems.
Have a look at this page:
http://www.softwaretipsandtricks.com...t=upper+filter
Then there's always the possibility the DVD drive is buggered. Good luck.
