Hello and thank you beforehand.
The story goes like this: once I had to submit a school project and required VMware to emulate Linux (since I was given a Toshiba laptop with the condition of not messing up with it beyond installing programs), and first VMware DID NOT work at all, and then the CD/DVD drive stopped working. I know it has to be VMware because I installed it in a desktop PC and the same thing happened, that, until I uninstalled the damn thing (which turned out as such a blessed remedy!). When I tried to uninstall in the Toshiba laptop it won't allow me to do so. I even entered into safe mode, but as you may know, Vista does not allow permission to use the uninstaller... in safe mode.
I've been trying everything, but I can't mess around in the system since it's not mine. By the way, if this helps as a hint: every time I get a disk into the drive, nothing happens until I reboot, kind of like it only reads BEFORE Windows is fully running.
That's all and thanks to everyone again.