Well I am officially an idiot.
I was so much in a rush that I never plugged in the 4 pin molex power connectors to both drives  WOW! At least I know how to troubleshoot problematic optical drives now. Thanks and sorry for wasting your time!
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AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego, Asus A8N-SLI Premium, PCP&C Silencer 600W PSU, Corsair ValueSelect 2x1gb ram DDR 400, WD Black Sata 500GB 7200RPM 32MB, Sapphire Radeon HD 3870, Razor Diamondback Optical Mouse, 17" Samsung Syncmaster 740B
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