Dead PC with XP CD in burner.....

[Uranus]

Heya Gizmo,howarya? Does anyone know how to open a CD burner without destroying it or the disk inside?All help greatly appreciated.Thanks.

[cauzomb]

If the PC still powers on, you can press the eject button when it's trying to boot, and grab the cd before it closes. If not, there should be a small hole in the front of the cdrom, just under the tray, "if it has a tray" you can insert a straightened paperclip, or thin straight wire into the hole and press it in untill the tray ejects a little, then pull it out by hand the rest of the way. If you don't have a hole, maybe it's a slot type burner, then you can take the cdrom out of the computer and put it in another PC? if you suspect the burner is dead, you might not want to plug it into the other PC, due to the risk of shorting out the other PC's power supply. If this is the case, just take the burner apart till you can "liberate" the disc without damaging it..

here's a how to from HP; further down in the article, there's a picture showing where most drives would have the manual eject hole. http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...uct=58431&dlc=

[Uranus]

Thanks cauzomb....the paper clip solution worked just fine.Nice of you to help.