Dell Inspiron DVD ROM drive

Hello,

I got this system recently but the DVD ROM drive is irritating me. Whenever there is a disc sitting in the drive, the drive seems to check the disc every 30 - 40 seconds and makes two "checking" noises. This doesnt cause anything to happen on the computer, it simply seems as if it is checking to see if there iks a disc there. How can I stop this annoying noise?

thanks