My Answer:

I suggested a buffering program, and also suggested not putting any thing in the drive: but hey -- there's got to be a better way!  So, I asked Gazette Readers if they had any better ideas.

I only received 2 suggestions.  Doug L. was nice enough to recommend DisCD v0.99:

" This tool disables CD-ROM drives, so that they won't spin up on opening of Explorer or similar programs.  For Windows NT/2000 only.

http://www.amok.gulli.com/v3.htm "

Dave G. from Saskatchewan says:

" When you put a disc in the drive, hold the shift key on your keyboard -- before the disc is inserted.  The drive won't spin up until you click on My Computer and manually click the drive letter.  This works for all versions of Windows. "

I also did some searching on Google and remembered that in older versions of Windows (9x, ME?) there's a feature called Auto Insert Notification.  You can shut it off and stop spin up from happening, but it won't refresh the disc label until you right click the drive letter and choose "Refresh".

Here's how to disable it:

• Access the Device Manager by clicking on the Start Menu / Settings / Control Panel / System / and the Device Manger tab.
   
• Click on the "+" by CD-ROM which will display the CD drives in your system. Double-click the on the specific CD drive to check the auto insert feature.
   
• Click the Settings tab and look under the section titled Options.  Listed under the options you should find Disconnect, Sync data transfer, and Auto insert notification.
   
• Uncheck the Auto insert notification option box by clicking on it.  If you have done this successfully, there will no longer be a check mark in the box next to Auto insert notification.
   
• Windows will then ask you to restart your computer for the change to take place; click Yes to reboot.

There may be more programs out there that will do the job.  I tried PowerToys (Tweak UI) for Windows XP and didn't see any options to shut off AutoRun.