I've tried MS suggestions other than editing the Registry myself (would have no idea where to start there).

It's definitely not the hardware or cables, 'cause I switched the HDD with another one that I've not used in a while and the OS recognized the DVD and CD-Rom drives. So it looks to be a Registry or Driver issue somewhere...
I still need to resolve this. This is my first major issue on this system in over one to two years. I've been running this installation of XP for about 4 years without any problems...