Vista Error Code 19: Where'd my disc drives go???

All of a sudden Vista said that both of my optical drives did not exist.  I could boot from a CD when restarting the computer, but once Vista loaded I couldn't access them.  They showed up in the Device Manager, but with little yellow warning signs.  The DM claimed the drivers were up to date, and the only info I got was this message in the drive properties:

"Windows cannot start this hardware device because its configuration information (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged. (Code 19)"

I tried System Restore, but was only able to restore it 3 days earlier, and it didn't help any.  I tried disabling and uninstalling the drivers to no avail.  I even unplugged the drives from the power source and moved them around then plugged them back in hoping to jar something into recognition.  I spent hours searching forums for an answer and finally came across this site which suggested deleting some entries in the registry.  Very Risky, but I thought it was worth a try.  So after exporting my registry I made the recommended deletions and restarted, and Voila! it worked!  Craziness.  Hopefully Windows 7 will be a little more reliable.

Here are the instructions I followed (Repeat them at your own risk!):

1. Click MY COMPUTER at the top of the list, click FILE, then EXPORT
2. Browse to a folder that is esy to access such as My Documents
3. Type a filenme that is easy to remember, such as RegBackup
4. Click SAVE to backup the registry.
5. Click the small plus sign (+) next to each of the following folders
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
• SYSTEM
• Select
6. Double click the default key and note the value Data number. This value data is used in the next step.
7. Click the small plus sign (+) next to each of the following folders
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
• SYSTEM
• CONTROLSET001 (IF the default value data was 1) or Controlset002 (If the default value data was 2)
• Control
• Class
• {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
8. Right click LOWERFILTERS from the right side of the window and click Delete
9. Right click UPPERFILTERS from the right side of the window and click DELETE
10. Exit registry editor and restart the computer.