So I have a problem that’s driving me crazy and Im worried I wont be able to fix it

My friend needed his computer reformatted so he dropped it off to my house. I did the reformatting using the windows discs and a basic installation. He had his motherboard disc so I didn’t have to worry about finding any of the device drivers for the operating system.

Everything went smoothly up until I attempted to install this DVD-Rom drive he had told me to put in it to replace some ancient CD-Writer drive when he first got the computer (computer came with a DVD-Writer and a CD-Writer drive. I used the DVD-writer to install windows).

This drive thing came with nothing, no driver disc or anything; but I didn’t think it would be a big deal. I thought I would just find it manually on the internet. Big mistake it seems.

I replaced the CD-Drive with the DVD-Rom drive and after booting up XP, windows detects it on the hardware screen saying it needed the driver. It gave me some kind of bizarre name (Mit ashi SR-8u8u) but of course this exact name does not exist on any google search I try. I later assumed it may be Mitashi (without a space) and some SR model that resembles the one on the device manager (maybe the u replaces some other digit because windows dosent know what it is) but no luck, I still cant seem to find a valid device driver to make the drive work. It turns on, the tray opens, and any disc I put in spins and seems to load but nothing pops up on my windows screen so I know its plugged in properly.

Well I thought maybe if I tried a windows update I could find it (as some of these nameless brand drivers are provided through Microsoft). I did the service pack 3 update which is unavoidable until I could get to the custom update page. Sure enough it wasn’t there but for some reason now I have no DVD-Rom drives listed on My Computer either since I restarted. Just the floppy drive and the C drive. I cant even find an unknown driver on my Device Manager. In fact I cant find ANY DVD-Rom drives on my device manager, including the DVD-Writer I never took out… wtf

Can anyone explain to me what I may have done and how I can fix it? Its fine if I cant get the DVD-Rom to work, I’ll just tell my friend to buy one new…. but if none of his drives work except his HD and A: drive, I see that as a big problem, especially if we need to do a reformat in the future. Before anyone asks I made double sure the cables were in properly and that I was showing hidden devices on my hardware manager.