ciphergoth | Advice sought: Windows can't see my CD drive

Summary: Windows 98 still can't see my CD drive. Do I have any option besides a reinstall?

One day, without cause that I can figure out, I booted Windows on my laptop and found that the CD-ROM drive was no longer listed among the drives. Linux can still see and use the drive just fine, but even if I disable and re-enable it in the BIOS, Windows doesn't see it.

I found this out when trying to re-install network drivers under Windows, so I don't currently have Windows networking either.

If you had such a problem, where would you go for advice?

many thanks in advance...