You should still be able to load and eject regardless whether the drive is recognized by the system.. Its a basic function that it has to oblige by a manual request, pushing the button on the front of the drive.. If your drive is having problems loading and ejecting manually upon system startup I would change the power rail your using to connect it.. It may be possible that its not getting enough power, a possibility since you have quite an old system.. That also may point to your power supply..

It just could be your power supply and/or the rail your using to power that drive with.. If thats not the cause, I would say you have a bad drive and to RMA..