Putting CD in backward?

[rrm74001]

My parents put a CD upside down into the slot-loading DVD drive of their iMac and it made some funny noises and eventually spit it out. I was just wondering if they hurt it at all. Does it have a protection feature that prevents damaging itself if this happens?

 

[Nermal]

It should be fine. I've done it myself (don't ask*) and there was no damage to the drive.

*Well, because you're thinking it... it was a music DVD and the top was the usual "silver" with no label so I thought that there might be standard audio tracks on it.

 

[outphase]

There's not really any damage that can result. This dates back to CD players when they first came out.

The drive will attempt to read from the data-less side and eventually give up.