# CD-ROM question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 16, 2000, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-rom-question/25726 "2000-07-16T06:57:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2000, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-rom-question/25726/1 "2000-07-16T06:57:35Z")
As I put a CD into my computer’s CD-ROM drive, I notice that it has a (get ready for a technical description here) little wire flippy thing on the left hand side, right along the edge. My first thought was that this thing flipped on over once the CD was inside the drive in order to keep it in place. I discounted this idea because (A) my stero CD player has no such device and yet it doesn’t send the discs shooting out like spinning wheels of death and (B) if I put a CD in and then flipped it myself, the effect was to pop the CD up since the CD was too large to allow it to flip over the disc. Flipping said wire when the drive was empty provided nothing except for the theory that the wire isn’t really attached to any mechanical device as I had no resistance to manually flipping it. Ok, I’m sure I’ve gone on way too long about something that no doubt has an obvious practical use. Are there CDs smaller than the standard that somehow need securing? And how would they stay centered if they need a wire just to hold them down (and why wouldn’t the spool keep them in place anyway?) ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2000, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-rom-question/25726/2 "2000-07-16T07:14:31Z")
CD ROM drives often have small disk holders to be used when the drive is used in a vertical position (ie tower case turned on it’s side for whatever reason) to secure the disk in the drive. ---
**Author:** ![TheNerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@TheNerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheNerd)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2000, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-rom-question/25726/3 "2000-07-16T08:00:08Z")
Astro’s right, that’s probably what the wire is. But to answer the other question, yes there are smaller than standard CDs which the drive can read. Actually, there is a smaller size that’s also a standard, but it’s little used. And I’ve seen a gimmick business card from Compaq that was actually readable in a standard cdrom. Yes, it looked like a business card made from cd material. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2000, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-rom-question/25726/4 "2000-07-16T09:15:21Z")
Gimmick nothing… I have received real business cards like that. They fit snuggle into the smaller circle in the cd-rom tray. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2000, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-rom-question/25726/5 "2000-07-16T17:07:47Z")
Really? Not that I doubt Astro, because it’s better than any of my theories, but I remember reading in the manual for this thing (t’s an older desktop type) _not_ to set it on its side – the principle reason for which being the CD-ROM. Then again, the manual said a lot of things that could be disregarded as crap.