Cd Rom stopped working!!!

Hi! Previously my cd rom was working perfectly well but u see i had to go out of work for a few days and when i came back i saw that the hd has been formatted and windows 98 loaded. ( Previously also win 98) But the cd rom won’t take in any disc. The drive has power, is ejecting , the cables are okay, the drive seems okay. But just that it showing in Explorer but not reading any cds. It is giving errors like Device not ready, etc. I think if i format it and reinstall win the problem may be gonebut i do not want to format and wanna know if there is a solution for these and fast.
Thank U
Rajeev