This is a rather annoying problem I have with Linux on my laptop. Whenever I install any Linux distro that relies on grub (which is about 99 % apparently) it will mess up my DVD-drive and the drive will not be recognized after booting, no matter the OS (Ubunntu, Arch, Windows Vista or 7). I know the problem has nothing to do the DVD-drive itself, because I bought a new one a few months ago. I am also sure that grub is messing the drive up, because I have tried to use LILO, which worked fine (except for horrible boot times.) This problem have persisted through about 3-4 years and it is a pretty bad show stopper whenever I want to work with Linux. I had hoped it would get fixed over time, but no one seems to have the exact problem I have. The drive is connected with an IDE connection. Update: The old drive was a Toshiba Samsung SN-S082. I don't know the model number of the new one, but it is HP (I think). Things I have tried to fix it: Mess about with some BIOS settings like enabling AHCI and change some IDE settings. Installing a different boot loader DOES fix the problem but I would like to use grub.