Auleo

I had this issue a couple of times for me it was corrupted windows updated the way I fixed it was I downloaded windows on to usb via the windows media creation tool and then plugged it in to my pc and spammed to get to bios then booted to usb and went through the installation steps until I got to where It gave me the option to put some commands in so I did and then I wiped both drives so that way the corrupted files went and then continued the windows setup screen and managed to get into the pc fresh windows install i had the issue on my pc and my brothers laptop  and fixed it on both devices 

Ye it’s worth a try worked for me on an old laptop then on my current pc then on my brothers laptop 

oh! sorry, i dont know how forums work, lmao, im only ever on these when i have a question. im almost useless.
 

a SATA 7+15 pin to USB would definitely work for sure, I was just hoping for a case, by having only the cable it makes the optical drive seem so rudimentary and ugly, kinda worried about damaging the thing too in case if i drop it, i dunno.

let them burn in the laptop and dump the ashes into a trash can

I did one last week. they're there. you just have to look.