How to Detect Insertion of a CD ROM

This C# code detects a CD-ROM being inserted into the CD-ROM drive of a PC. In order to interact with the CD-ROM, you need to use Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). The .NET Framework provides two sets of classes for interaction with WMI. The System.Management Namespace provides access to management information and events about the system. The System.Management.Instrumentation Namespace provides classes to expose management information and events of an application to WMI.

using System;
using System.Management;
 
namespace CDROMManagement
{
  class WMIEvent
  {
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
      WMIEvent we = new WMIEvent();
      ManagementEventWatcher w = null;
      WqlEventQuery q;
      ManagementOperationObserver observer = new
          ManagementOperationObserver();
 
      // Bind to local machine
      ConnectionOptions opt = new ConnectionOptions();
      opt.EnablePrivileges = true; //sets required privilege
      ManagementScope scope = new ManagementScope( "root\\CIMV2", opt );
 
      try
      {
        q = new WqlEventQuery();
        q.EventClassName = "__InstanceModificationEvent";
        q.WithinInterval = new TimeSpan( 0, 0, 1 );
 
        // DriveType - 5: CDROM
        q.Condition = @"TargetInstance ISA 'Win32_LogicalDisk' and
            TargetInstance.DriveType = 5";
        w = new ManagementEventWatcher( scope, q );
 
        // register async. event handler
        w.EventArrived += new EventArrivedEventHandler( we.CDREventArrived );
        w.Start();
 
        // Do something usefull,block thread for testing
        Console.ReadLine();
      }
      catch( Exception e )
      {
        Console.WriteLine( e.Message );
      }
      finally
      {
        w.Stop();
      }
    }
 
    // Dump all properties
    public void CDREventArrived(object sender, EventArrivedEventArgs e)
    {
      // Get the Event object and display it
      PropertyData pd = e.NewEvent.Properties["TargetInstance"];
 
      if (pd != null)
      {
        ManagementBaseObject mbo = pd.Value as ManagementBaseObject;
 
        // if CD removed VolumeName == null
        if (mbo.Properties["VolumeName"].Value != null)
        {
          Console.WriteLine("CD has been inserted");
        }
        else
        {
          Console.WriteLine("CD has been ejected");
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Note... In order to use the System.Management namespace in .NET 2, you will need to add a reference to the System.Management.dll. This can be done in the IDE by right-clicking on the project in the solution explorer and choosing Add Reference... from the list. The DLL is on the first tab towards the end of the list of items.