Computers...
Can be the biggest pain in the ass ever. I decided to clean the dust bunnies out of the old comp and now my DVD/CD drive doesn't register.... guess I shouldn't have unscrewed that fan to clean it...

Well take a look at it again, and make sure the 40-pin IDE cable is still attached to both the CD/DVD rom drive, as well as the motherboard. Also check to make sure that one of the power plugs from the PSU (Power Supply Unit) is plugged into it as well.

Would you believe it.... I restarted the comp for something, and when it started back up again, it was working fine.