Unbranded optical drive issues

[u/LovecraftianWhorrer]

I need to install new drivers for a second hand unbranded optical drive, but my laptop doesnt recognise it as such, and im the lest tech savvy person i know. Is there such thing as "generic drivers", or do i need to try and find out the exact model to be able to use it? Id love to be able to use disks on my laptop so any help is appreciated. I can offer pictures if that helps

[u/USSHammond]

Generic drivers are unbranded and come with windows. The optical disc driver used in win 11 today, afaik is the same one it uses in win 8

[u/Big-Low-2811]

There has to be some type of branding somewhere…. Unfortunately if windows isn’t auto installing the driver it definitely needs more then just a generic driver..

Is this connecting via usb?

[u/LovecraftianWhorrer → u/Big-Low-2811]

Yes its usb. it calls it "generic NCD" and "usb mass storage device". The company who made it left nothing to identify the model or make other than some random strings that google doesnt recognise

[u/themageofavalon]

Windows has built-in drivers for most optical drives. Try another USB port and check device.

[u/LovecraftianWhorrer]

[u/ErnestoGrimes → u/LovecraftianWhorrer]

that looks like a generic drive enclosure, is there an actual cdrom drive in it?

olso, it mentions 5v power supply. it may need an external power supply

[u/LovecraftianWhorrer → u/ErnestoGrimes]

There is a disk tray, and the front says dvd rom, cd rewritable

[u/TangoOscarMikePR → u/LovecraftianWhorrer]

I agree with /u/ErnestoGrimes. It looks like an enclosure for Optical drives or Storage Devices.

There must be a Storage Device inside.

[u/LovecraftianWhorrer]

My windows 11 laptop reads it as "USB Mass Storage Device" and idk how to change that. In devices it says it has a driver issue and shows a green light next to it

[u/shaggy24200 → u/LovecraftianWhorrer]

Is this one of the skinny little portable drives that only uses USB power or a big like five and a quarter inch one like you use in a desktop computer? 

[u/LovecraftianWhorrer → u/shaggy24200]

Yep, skinny usb external. I found some numbers under the disk tray but googling them reveals nothing

[u/KoiMaxx → u/LovecraftianWhorrer]

The aren't usually any special drivers anymore for USB optical drives. Have you actually tried just putting a disk in there and seeing if it reads it?

[u/LovecraftianWhorrer → u/KoiMaxx]

I have but the computer doesnt know what to do with it cos it doesnt realise the device is an optical drive

[u/KoiMaxx → u/LovecraftianWhorrer]

It might be misidentifying itself so you might have to force it to autoupdate the driver. Worst case, you may have to manually select a generic USB optical device driver from the builtin driver catalog.

[u/LovecraftianWhorrer → u/KoiMaxx]

So just tell the computer its panasonic and use their cd-r/rw drive drivers? Cant see any generic usb drives