2006 Mac Pro won't eject optical drives

For whatever reason, my computer is refusing to eject either of the optical drives. I have repaired the disk, repaired permissions, run Disk Warrior and all of that fun stuff. I can still control the brightness of my monitor and type with the keyboard, just not eject the disc. Apple, in their infinite wisdom whom none can deny, have decided that manual eject buttons on the drives themselves should not be easily accessible (trust me, I've tried). Form over function.

Is there anything software-wise I can do about this?

I think my next step will be to open the computer up and check for a short on the drive power cables. It's really crowded in their and I recall they don't give a lot of slack with the wires. I am prepared to be frustrated.

EDIT: No short. Bottom drive opens with manual button, top does not. Bottom will not mount inserted disc.

The icon at the top of the screen in the menu bar which allows you to open drives via a mouse click says that there are "No drives".

I suppose it is possible the IDE cable has become loose on the motherboard, but I cannot get to that end of the cable. It gets tucked away towards the left/front of the machine and it is inaccessible. I could probably get to it if I could remove the front fan, but it doe snot seem to be able to be removed.

Course you can access and remove the optical drive to check the IDE cable connectors. They are extremely tight and if you have had the drive out lately, that could well be the problem using sufficient force on the molex connectors. And take it you mean ejecting the discs as the drives themselves do not eject of course!



http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/macpro_opticaldrive_diy.pdf

I can remove the optical drive bay, but I cannot get to where the other end of the cable goes. All connections are fine on the drive side. The drive will open if I press the button on the drive itself.

Something VERY WEIRD:
Upon one boot-up, the fans in my computer were suddenly super loud. Usually they are silent. But upon arriving in Mac OS X, the bottom drive was able to be recognized by the OS, but not the upper drive. I quickly burned the DVD I needed to and then rebooted. The fans were fine upon reboot, but once again the drives have disappeared from the presence of the OS.

Turns out part of the cable is frayed. It's pretty tough getting the bay back in there without damaging it. Drives removed and cabled sealed with electrical tape for now until I can figure out how to dissemble the computer enough to get the cable out entirely.

For instructions go to iFixit: The free repair manual.

But upon arriving in Mac OS X, the bottom drive was able to be recognized by the OS, but not the upper drive

There is no bottom hard drive on a Mac Pro, just four hard drives bays lined up one beside the other. Any chances this is a G5 PowerMac you have? Or are you telling us you have two optical drives fitted? If so the lower one will only work by holding the Option key and then the eject button.

Thanks for the link, chscag!

Harry, my Mac Pro has two optical drives. I put in a second one many years ago.

Well read the post about using the second, or bottom drive, with the Option key. Been easier if you parted with that info earlier lol!

I think I would have posted looong ago if I couldn't have gotten my drive open in all of these years. But the initial post did say that I could not open either of my optical drives, so even if I knew not how to gain access to the second one, the problem is obviously not there.