mini-disc stuck in drive, any hope?

We have a year-old iMac (24-in screen, 2.5 or 3GHz, not sure) and I inserted a mini-disc into the drive (bad idea, I know) and now it's stuck. Any hope? I've been using an external drive, but it makes a horrible "ejecting" noise on startup. Any hope?

If you are feeling brave there is a take apart guide here

iMac 20" First Look

You should be able to get to the optical drive and get that disc out

kay_tee said:

We have a year-old iMac ... I inserted a mini-disc into the drive ... and now it's stuck. Any hope?

Click to expand...

Seriously - I have to state that ;D - gently tip your iMac on its side, disk slot facing downward over the edge of the desk. Have someone hold it in place. This procedure will do no harm.

Select the mini disk icon with a mouse click and press Cmd-E on the keyboard. Believe it or not, this technique sometimes works. Because it's a mini disk, poking in a tongue depressor with sticky tape on it is unlikely to work.

Next option - if the above doesn't work - hold down the L button of the mouse on startup, see if that will evict the unwanted tenant!

Keep us informed.

What the iFixit guide doesn't tell you is how difficult it is to reassemble the iMac with the display dust free. Even using Apple's cleaning kit it's a real pain.