disc drive not operating properly

[bigebe02]

My Disk drive hasn't worked in a month or so. I had my cousin look at
computer and he said it was a driver and to try a system restore. I
tried and now when I push the eject button for the drive I get this
message:

"Cannot open the tray of the optical drive. Please try again to eject
the tray after close the all using softwares or after shutdown the
system and then start the windows. If none of the above options
work, ..."

That is not a typo, it reads as if it was written by someone with a
poor grasp of the english language. I am concerned my computer is at
risk. I am considering a full system restore. I would also like to
re-format my drive but my recovery software is on my hard drive. Do I
need to make disks of my recovery software first?

Any help or advise is greatly appreciated. I have a sony VGN-TX750P
laptop and run Windows XP software.

Thanks again, Erik

 

[Jerome T. Czeikus]

By Disk drive I'll assume you mean the CD or DVD ROM drive and not the hard
drive.

With the power off straighten out a paper clip and stick it in the little
hole you should find right abve the eject button. A little pressure should
release the hardware lock and allow the tray to slide out. Verify it slides
in and out ok and remove any CD/DVD. This ay or may not fix the problem but
I know of no other way to actually open that door.