How easy is it to remove a cd/dvd drive from a PC?

[Flier]

My Dearest children have kindly placed a piece of plastic tat in the cd drive, now it won't close properly and I can't get it out, thought it might be easier to remove it the actual unit and remove the toy that way, but don't know how.

I have opened up the pc before, but the last time i did i couldn't work out how to get this out.

If anyone can tell me if it can be done, or direct me to a site that will tell me, i'd be really grateful, thanks

I had a disc shatter in my dvd drive last year and I searched the techie forom on moneysavingexpert.com and found some answers and I also googled stuck cd drive.I think you have to unfold a paper clip and inset into a hole about the size of a pin head just below your cd tray and this should manually release it but you would probably be better googling it for precise instructions.

The CD drive is a sealed unit, so you can't get at it by opening the case.

You could remove it (unscrew the 4 screws holding it to the case, and unplug the power, data and audio cables in the back) before taking it somewhere with decent light and extracting the bits with a large set of tweezers. Alternately hold it upside down and shake it.

If all fails, a new CD/DVD driver should set you back about... circa £20 at dabs.com, probably cheaper on the high street, so it's not a massive expense if the tat is unremovable...

I had to take mine apart a few weeks ago - DD had put a CD-ROM in, quite rightly, but it was off-centre in the tray and got jammed. Farkin' Teletubbies. Anyway, I opened up the case, realised the power supply was in the way of taking the CD drive out, took the power supply out, THEN realised the CD drive wouldn't come out backwards at all, but had to come out of the front of the PC. So I levered the fascia off the PC, hoicked the drive out, sliced through the seals on the drive (invalidating the warranty, what the hell), undid all the screws and JUST managed to lever the thing open wide enough to shove the CD into the correct position (couldn't open it wide enough to take it out). Then had to reconstruct the whole thing in order to power it back up and gingerly press the eject button.

In short - you probably need to take it out of the front of the PC, although it may well not help (as it doesn't open very far).

thanks everyone.

I'll first of all try and get it out tonight.
If I have to buy a new one I will, but it was only replaced last year after DS had put several things into it. DD got the blame this time