CD/DVD Drive Completely Vanished...What's Wrong With This Laptop?

I don't even know how to BEGIN to understand this one...I'm not a rookie to computers, but this is definitely a mystery to me...


My CD/DVD drive WAS showing in the My Computer folder at first, but eventually started showing up SOMETIMES and not playing or acknowledging CDs even when I inserted them....then it ultimately just stopped showing up at all. I can't even open my CD slot to insert anything into the drive. I don't know why it's doing this, but no matter how many times I reboot it's not making the laptop acknowledge the CD drive. It's almost as if it doesn't exist on the system...

Maybe I'm not explaining this in a way for any computer genius to understand, but I just don't know how else to do it....Can someone PLEASE help me out here....it would be greatly appreciated...

Thanx...

I'm running Windows Vista by the way...not sure which Service Pack though OR how to find out.....this is a Toshiba Satellite laptop...