external usb optical drive only visible by admin acct.

i just hooked up a sony dvd+/- r w/ external usb connection to my toshiba portege laptop, using xp home. it doesnt show up in "my computer" but the drivers are good to go in the device manager.

then wheni reboot in safe mode, i have an administrator login option, in addition to the normal account name "john" which is the only one visible on normal bootup.

the administrator in safe mode can see the drive, but not the usual user account, even in safe mode.

any ideas?

You could try giving John administrator privileges. Did you install the device using the admin account? I'd try reinstalling the drivers, and looking for updated ones.
J.