Why does it take so long to read media in optical drives??

[videobruce]

For the time optical media has been out, why does it still take so long, around 30 seconds, for a optical disc to be read or reconized by the O/S (2k)?
I understand it has to spin up (a few seconds) and read the TOC (a few seconds, or should be), but why should/does that take what seems forever? The whole computer is at the mercy of this process since you can't do anything else while this is taking place. Even opening another folder doesn't happen untill the O/S reads the disc.

It doesn't seem to matter if it is a plain old CD or a DVD movie. Neither does what type of drive it is or how old the drive is. Mind you, I run a 'lean' machine without the usual 30 or 40 processes running at startyup I see many other with.

I could understand when they first came out, but that was light years ago (in computer time).

Input please.

[dolphinius_rex]

It could be due to scratches on the disc, or a bad burn if it's recordable media. Also possible is the drive might be on its' last legs?

[[buck]]

30 seconds sounds unusually long. 10 seconds or so is what I'm used to.

[videobruce]

This has been the case with every box I ever used, setup or owned. Maybe it might be as little as 20 seconds, but ti is long. Everything comes to a standstill untill the O/S can 'read' the disc. I have used many CDs' and DVDs' and pretty much the same thing. This is also with more than one drive on the system.

BTW, DMA is enabled.

[2Dogs]

The time varies with different burners.

With my LG, I can go and put the kettle on while I wait for it to figure out what the disc is, whilst my old Khypermedia takes only about 7 or 8 seconds.

My DW1655 and 1650 definitely take longer than the KHypermedia.

I speculate that the time is longer for multi-format burners. If you have your boot sequence set to check the optical drive first, having any media in the drive at boot up will add the disc recognition time to your boot time.

[videobruce]

This has nothing to do with boot time. It's the 'freeze' untill the O/S reads the disc.

[2Dogs]

This has nothing to do with boot time. It's the 'freeze' untill the O/S reads the disc.

Whilst I realise that your query has nothing to do with boot time, I was merely pointing out that if you have a disc in the drive, and your BIOS set to include the optical drive in your boot sequence, your boot time will be increased by the same disc recognition time.

Perhaps that's just information you don't want to know.

[videobruce]

Yes, I understand that and it's most noticeable and understandable why it happens.