In Windows Explorer, you can right-click on a CD-Drive and select the "Eject" option to open the CD Drive. Unfortunately, there is no "Close" equivelant to Close the drive. This project builds a command-line program that lets you open or close any or all of your CD-Drives.

To display the program's usage, run the program with no parameters:

C:\> CDR
CDR by Chris M. Sebrell
usage:
 CDR [open|close] [Drive-Letter|ALL]
example:
 CDR open E:
 CDR close ALL
C:\>

To OPEN or CLOSE the first logical CD Drive:

C:\> CDR open
C:\> CDR close

If you have more than one CD Drive, you can specify a drive letter:

C:\> CDR open g:
C:\> CDR close g:

If you have more than one CD Drive, you can specify ALL drives:

C:\> CDR open all
C:\> CDR close all

The main work routine in the program is CD_OpenClose(BOOL bOpen, TCHAR cDrive)

//Open or Close CD Drive
//cDrive is Drive Letter to Open, or 0x01 for 'Default' drive
//Examples:
//CD_OpenCloseDrive(TRUE, 'G');  //Open CD Door for Drive G:
//CD_OpenCloseDrive(FALSE, 'G'); //Close CD Door for Drive G:
//CD_OpenCloseDrive(TRUE, 1);    //Open First Logical CD Door
void CD_OpenCloseDrive(BOOL bOpenDrive, TCHAR cDrive)
{
 MCI_OPEN_PARMS op;
 MCI_STATUS_PARMS st;
 DWORD flags;

 TCHAR szDriveName[4];
 strcpy(szDriveName, "X:");

 ::ZeroMemory(&op, sizeof(MCI_OPEN_PARMS));
 op.lpstrDeviceType = (LPCSTR) MCI_DEVTYPE_CD_AUDIO;

 if(cDrive > 1)
 {
  szDriveName[0] = cDrive;
  op.lpstrElementName = szDriveName;
  flags = MCI_OPEN_TYPE
        | MCI_OPEN_TYPE_ID
        | MCI_OPEN_ELEMENT
        | MCI_OPEN_SHAREABLE;
 }
 else flags = MCI_OPEN_TYPE
            | MCI_OPEN_TYPE_ID
            | MCI_OPEN_SHAREABLE;

 if (!mciSendCommand(0,MCI_OPEN,flags,(unsigned long)&op))
 {
  st.dwItem = MCI_STATUS_READY;

  if(bOpenDrive)
   mciSendCommand(op.wDeviceID,MCI_SET,MCI_SET_DOOR_OPEN,0);
  else
   mciSendCommand(op.wDeviceID,MCI_SET,MCI_SET_DOOR_CLOSED,0);

  mciSendCommand(op.wDeviceID,MCI_CLOSE,MCI_WAIT,0);
 }
}

Next, to facilitate operating on ALL CD Drive Doors, add this routine (which calls the CD_OpenCloseDrive() function above):

void CD_OpenCloseAllDrives(BOOL bOpenDrives)
{
 // Determine All CD Drives and Open (or Close) each one
 int nPos = 0;
 UINT nCount = 0;
 TCHAR szDrive[4];
 strcpy(szDrive, "?:\\");

 DWORD dwDriveList = ::GetLogicalDrives ();

 while (dwDriveList) {
  if (dwDriveList & 1)
  {
   szDrive[0] = 0x41 + nPos;
   if(::GetDriveType(szDrive) == DRIVE_CDROM)
   CD_OpenCloseDrive(bOpenDrives, szDrive[0]);
  }
  dwDriveList >>= 1;
  nPos++;
 }
}

That's all! The download includes source code & the compiled CDR.EXE program. If anyone has additions, corrections, or a whole new approach to this, I'd love to hear about it. I'll update this project with any new useful information I receive.

Downloads