Silence noisy CD & DVD drives

New CD/DVD drives can burn data at lightning fast speeds and can probably copy data from optical discs with startling quickness, but these sure can make a lot of noise. While the crackles and whirs of a noisy drive can be easily tolerated when burning an important backup disc, it can sure put a lid on the experience of listening to one’s favorite tracks or catching up on a weekend movie. Well, not any more. There are software tools available which can successfully bring down the racket caused by your optical drive to a fraction of the actual volume.

Nero Drivespeed is one great utility that can significantly cut down the sound of your CD/DVD drives. Previously, Nero would provide it with its burning software, but now this nifty little tool is available for free. However, as with any other free software, there are no guarantees as to how well it will work on your PC. Here’s how you can use this tool:

1. Download Drivespeed by doing a Google search for the tool. It is usually available in the form of a compressed (zipped) file with the name NeroDriveSpeed_300.zip. Download the tool to some place where you can easily locate it. Desktop would be a good idea.
2. Extract the executable of Drivespeed from the zipped file. Install the tool on your PC.
3. If you do not have any older version of Drivespeed installed in your PC, then your job will be much easier. However, if you have an older version in your PC that installed along with Nero burning software, then you may have to go through little trouble. Anyway, for now, just start the executable.
4. A dialog box will open, and you will see two buttons in it, namely, Silent and Fast.
5. Clicking on the Silent button will lower the noise level of the drive after a few seconds. Pressing the Fast button will increase drive speed, but may increase the noise level considerably.

If you have older versions of Drivespeed installed in your PC, you will not get the Silent and Fast buttons. In that case, you may have to configure the drive speed manually. Lower the drive speed than what it is now, and see if there is any difference in the noise level. If it gets lowered, then check for performance issues. If you see that the performance is at par with your requirements, then your experimentation is successful. Close the window and enjoy a quieter experience. If the performance level is degraded after you lower drive speed, then bring it back up, one notch at a time. When you feel that you have achieved a balance between speed and noise level of the CD/DVD drive, stop there.