Hi Anthony_Craig,
I see that lshw is the tool of your choice so let's stick to that for the moment.
If you want the full output visible, then use:
sudo lshw | less
so that you can scroll up and down through its contents.
To prevent "searching for a needle in a haystack" try this:
sudo lshw -short | grep disk
It will immediately show all your detected drives and nothing more 
If your optical drive is not listed, it is almost certain that one of the following scenarios is happening:
- your drive is not properly connected to the motherboard and/or powersupply.
- your drive is (physically/electrically) broken.
- your motherboard SATA interface is damaged.
You could try another SATA-cable and another SATA connector on the motherboard and if you are lucky it will work. If not, then it is almost sure your optical drive is dead.
(The chance that the kernel doesn't recognize a working SATA drive is virtually none.)