These are some examples of sounds you might hear from your optical disc drive (these recordings were taken very close to the optical drive--the equivalent of having your ear directly next to the drive):
- Waking the computer from sleep (sample)
- Burning a CD or DVD (sample)
- Inserting a disc (sample-1, sample-2)
- Ejecting a disc (sample-1, sample-2)
- Importing ("ripping") an audio CD in iTunes (sample)
- Playing a DVD (sample)
- Spinning up an idle disc (sample-1, sample-2)
The sample sounds may be similar to what you hear, but may not be an exact match. Different discs may make different noises in the drive. Not all discs can be read at the same speeds.
After listening to the example sounds, if you feel that your optical disc drive is making noises in excess of these examples during normal operation, please contact AppleCare for assistance.
For more information, see Mac Notebooks: Troubleshooting the slot-loading optical disc drive.