Frequently I have a DVD-disk left in the DVD-ROM drive, which I am kind of reluctant to take out. I have Windows-7 OS which freezes constanly checking on that disk. I do not need that constant checking, because I know what disk I have in the drive.
Is there a way to turn off the DVD-drive when I do not need to use it?
Thank you.
Yes there is, you can disable DVD-drive. Go to Control Panel -> Administrative tools -> Computer management -> click on Device manager, select DVD/CD-ROM drives, right click on your drive and click "Disable". Enable it again when you want to use it :)
See my answer here for a link to DevCon for Win7.
Use devcon find *CDROM* or devcon listclass CDROM at an elevated command prompt to see a list of installed physical and virtual optical drives, for example:
IDE\CDROMSAMSUNG_DVD-ROM_SD-608__________________2.2_____\4&13B4AFD&0&0.0.0: SAMSUNG DVD-ROM SD-608
SCSI\CDROM&VEN_CONTOSO&PROD_VIRTUAL_DVD-ROM&REV_1.0A\1&2AFD7D61&0&0000: Contoso Virtual DVD-ROM0000
2 matching device(s) found.
Use the complete device ID string returned or figure out which portion(s) of the string returns only the drive you want to enable/disable. For example, a sub-string such as *CDROMSAMSUNG* or *CDROM*608* is sufficient to uniquely identify the physical drive, such that
devcon find *CDROMSAMSUNG* returns:
IDE\CDROMSAMSUNG_DVD-ROM_SD-608__________________2.2_____\4&13B4AFD&0&0.0.0: SAMSUNG DVD-ROM SD-608
1 matching device(s) found.
The rest is easy! Just use devcon disable *CDROMSAMSUNG* and
devcon enable *CDROMSAMSUNG* to do what you want.
Additionally, devcon status *CDROMSAMSUNG* will tell you whether "Driver is running" or "Device is disabled".
Edit: You can create ToggleCD.bat as follows:
devcon status *CDROMSAMSUNG* | find "Driver is running" && devcon disable *CDROMSAMSUNG* && goto :EOF
devcon status *CDROMSAMSUNG* | find "Device is disabled" && devcon enable *CDROMSAMSUNG* && goto :EOF
Ensure devcon.exe is in a directory that's in your PATH (for example, copy it to your Windows directory), and obviously replace *CDROMSAMSUNG* with the actual string that you identified using the instructions above.
To keep UAC on and yet bypass the prompt for the shortcut to the batch file, read the Create Administrator Mode Shortcuts Without UAC Prompts in Windows 7 or Vista article.
I had a problem like this a long time ago. The cure was to load a program that recorded any mouse movement and any mouse clicking. It could record the actions for instance of selecting Device Manager, selecting DVD/CD ROM DRIVES, and then choosing "Disable device".
This was then accessible via a desktop shortcut. The process of "Enable device" was also recorded and was also accessible via a desktop shortcut.
Click Start and type (without quotes) "diskmgmt.msc". Right click the result and select Run as Administrater. Follow the UAC prompt and Disk Manager will open. Find your SATA CD/DVD Drive and right click it. There should be an option to disable it.
