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When I use some laptop to watch DVDs (Windows Media Player, Windows 7), I sometimes pause the movie, then close the laptop. Closing the laptop puts it to sleep, stopping the DVD from spinning.

I believe that this is not bad for the laptop, as it should be designed for such a thing. However, I've been told that closing the laptop while the DVD is still spinning can cause damage.

Should I stop doing this?

The computer doesn't make any bad sounds while going to sleep; it typically takes 5-20 seconds after it's closed until it's actually asleep; I assume it's using this time to gracefully shut down things like the DVD drive.

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  • Your supposition sounds entirely plausible. The OS should certainly power down all devices properly before restarting, shutting down/hibernating, sleeping etc. to prevent data loss and hardware issues.
    – Karan
    Oct 17, 2012 at 2:45

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Closing the laptop while the DVD is spinning is fine, however, make sure you don't pack it up/move it a lot before it has stopped spinning

Also, if you are not using the DVD, then do take it out, since it will spin up the drive every time you boot your laptop otherwise

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  • Is it bad if the drive starts spinning the DVD on boot? Or should I just avoid it because it's wasteful? Thanks!
    – Matt Fenwick
    Oct 17, 2012 at 12:50
  • @MattFenwick Just wasteful, will eventually make your drive fail earlier
    – Akash
    Oct 18, 2012 at 5:47

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