DVD-ROM/optical drive begins to read disc when browsing or saving files

Question

This has bothered me for some time now.

When downloading a file from the internet, the browser/save file window gets stuck for about 3 seconds because the optical drive is loading like crazy. Besides, it's really noisy so I don't want my optical drive to do anything unless necessary.

This also happens sometimes while browsing my secondary hard disk drive.

Is there a way disable this behaviour? Why is it necessary for the optical drive to do anything at all when I'm not even using it?

Answer 1

Short answer

Take the disc out of the drive if you do not need it.

Long answer

Windows needs to make the data from the disc readily available when you have the dialog box open because apparently it does not remember if a disc is in there or not and whether or not it already scanned it.