Well, not so much the fact it’s a burner as the fact it’s mounted vertically instead of horizontally. I bought some DVD-R’s the other day, and with the spindle I got a free 1.7G mini-DVD-R, but I can’t get the fecking thing to stay in the drive tray as it closes. Any suggestions, short of rotating the whole box so it’s sitting horizontally?
Some CD/DVD trays have some sort of clips to hold the disc in place, if the unit is mounted vertically.
You could buy a USB case for the DVD burner, if you really plan to use mini-DVDs. But… you say it’s a mini-DVD-R, so you’ll only be writing it once… and probably never read it again, so why bother. 
I would try some chewing gum or paper clips.
Why bother? It’s 1.7 gig of free DVD-R, why waste freeness? 
doesnt work with mini dvds, clips are on the big “ring”…
i have a dvd case (firewire) to get rid of (0.0NT) if you are interested.