A month ago I watched a DVD on my '09 MBP Was at my sister's and wanted to copy some CDs she had Would not mount any. Home now and won't mount DVDs or CDs here It will spin up for few seconds then back down & repeats total of 3 times before spitting it out.
I have previously discovered my Superdrive can't be seen on my MBP - won't even take the disc
So I get my SuperDrive out & go to my MBA, plug in the SD, it sucks in the disc, spins a few seconds and spits it out.. Same with cds and dvds
This is a common problem, and the drives really aren't worth trying to fix short of compressed air cleaning it and making sure the cables are in tight.
I was away from home working and the same thing happened on my 2009 MacBook Pro with the super drive. After a visit to the apple store, they verified it was the drive ad wanted $150 for replacement. Bought an LG slim external drive for 49 and it works fine.
I made a Genius appointment. Then I saw alanxenos post about compressed air.
Took MBP and SD out to garage and blew them out. Both work fine now.
The SD has only been used half a dozen times and is always in the box it came in so am puzzled why it apparently had enough dust in it to prevent it from working.