If I open windows explorer on my Windows 7 laptop and if I open the file explorer in my Windows 8 laptop, I can see the CD-Rom drive listed. However, I cannot see the cd-rom drive on either laptop using Directory Opus.
Is there a disk in it?
Yes.
If you're viewing the My Computer folder in Opus, and it doesn't show up, try turning on:
Preferences / Folders / Virtual Folders / Show empty disk drives
If that makes it appear, the drive may not report media insertion events correctly. (I have a DVD drive which is like that, and only notices new media sometimes after you force a refresh or try to access it.)
If it still doesn't appear, try turning off Preferences / Folders / Virtual Folders / Native display of 'Computer'.
If we're not talking about the My Computer folder at all, but somewhere else that the list of drives appears, let us know which place(s) it is.
I've solved both problems. In the Windows 7 laptop I was trying to view a CD that had some type of problem. Turns out I could view the CD-Rom but not access it in Windows Explorer. With other CDs, the CD-ROM drive shows up when I insert something in it. I don't understand the problem on The Windows 8 laptop, but I had some other problems and I did a scan and repair of the C drive and now the CD-Rom shows up when I insert a CD. So I guess both problems have been resolved. Strange that I ran into 2 separate problems at the same time.