Vista - Windows doesn't show optical drive

Windows Home Basic does not recognize an inserted optical disk. Indeed, it
doesn't show the drive at all. I performed a non-distructive system
recovery. Nothing had changed. I went to Device Manager and found an
exclamation point for the optical drive. I uninstalled the driver expecting
Windows to reload it at restart and rebooted. Again, nothing had changed.

I have the Vista installation DVD. I decided to go to Control Panel - Add
Hardware and use the DVD to install the optical drive. Of course, this being
Vista, there was no such facility. I tried Help. It didn't help.

Can someone please tell me what to do next? I am prepared to completely
reinstall Vista.