CD/DVD and USB Drive Devices inoperative

[Bob G]

After installing Ubuntu 10.4, and rebooting, my cd/dvd and usb memory drives did not operate. An example of this problem is as follows: Upon inserting a cd or flash drive into my machine it would attempt to read the device but would fail. It would not display an icon on the desktop for either device. Upon opening Places>Computer the device would be displayed there. If either device were selected, and an attempt made to open it, the machine make another attempt to open and fail again.
Ubuntu 10.4 was a clean install. I then did a clean install of Ubuntu 9.10 with all updates and everything worked fine, then upgraded to Ubuntu 10.04 with the same results.
Guidance would be appreciated. Thank you in advance to the community.
Bob

[nujinini]

Hello Bob G!

Welcome!

I'm very sure the gurus would have a much better explanation on what's happening but for the time being, may I ask what happens if you try to mount them manually?

Upon opening Places>Computer the device would be displayed there. If either device were selected, and an attempt made to open it, the machine make another attempt to open and fail again.

Also, please paste output of:

fdisk -l

[Bob G]

I needed to use the drive so I am back on 9.10 so they would work. I plan to reinstall 10.4 when I get a few possible solutions to try. How else can I mount these drives manually other than opening Places>Computer selecting a drive, right clicking with my mouse, and selecting open? (Thanks for the prompt response.)