Have you ever needed to open your optical drive when the power was off? Maybe the drive quit working but your favorite music CD, game DVD, or BD movie was stuck inside? Or you simply powered down your PC and left the CD in the drive.
This easy trick will get the drive bay open fast! It will work every time on a laptop PC but extra care is needed on a desktop or tower PC.
Difficulty: (Very) Easy
What You Need: A single, reasonably-heavy-duty paperclip
Time Required: Using a paperclip to open your stuck disc drive will probably take less than 5 minutes, start to finish
Here's How:
1. Unfold the paperclip until there is at least 1 to 2 inches (2 to 5 cm) that is perfectly straight.
2. Look closely at your disc drive. Directly under or above the drive bay door (the part that "ejects" the disc) there should be a very small pinhole. On a laptop the pinhole will be right on the face of the CD drive.
Tip: If you have one of those desktop optical drives where a large door flips down before the drive bay ejects, pull that down with your finger and then look for the pinhole.
3. Push the paperclip into the pinhole. On a laptop the CD drive will pop open immediately.
4. On a desktop or tower, directly behind the pinhole, is small gear that when rotated will manually open the drive.
Remove and reinsert the paperclip as often as needed to eject the drive bay enough to grab a hold of it.
5. Slowly pull on the drive bay until it's fully retracted. Take care not to continue to pull when you feel resistance.
6. Remove the disc from the drive.
Slowly push the drive bay back into the drive until closed.
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