Problems with CD-RW, ZIp and Floppy drives

Alright, this is a weirdo problem :p
One of our users has been on vacationfor about 2 months. Her computer was working fine but after she came back to work, none of this devices work. The only program that can read the contents is NEro. We tried updating Nero. No luck. We tried updating XP, no luck.
We tried deleting Nero, and re-installing, no luck
we tried just deleting Nero, no luck.
We are thinking about doing a roll back, but want to avoid that, because there are a lot of files to backup (lots of CAD files)
Suggestions?
When doing a restore, what are the most important sections to backup?

If you're doing a System Restore it isn't supposed to harm or remove any data files. These "SHOULD" be ok.

I did a restore. It didn't work :( any ideas?