Lion doesn't recognize Disk Drive

[jotade11]

Hello all, quick question about the disk drive on the MacBook Pro. I'm on the mod-2009 model, and after installing Lion, my disk drive (a "Matshita xxxx", I think it was called) did not register anymore with Disk Utility, despite being in System Information (application). I didn't think this was a big deal, as Apple is moving away from it anyways, and I didn't use it anymore, but now, I would like to install Bootcamp, which, of course, is (supposedly and by-design) impossible to do without the disk drive. I googled around and saw some people just had a dirty drive, and that is why any disk put in would be spat back out, nearly immediately (as mine does), but didn't see anything about the system not recognizing the disk drive.

I have a service plan from BestBuy, so at worst, I bring it in for free service, but I just was wondering whether anyone had any ideas!

Thanks!