Not to long ago, I was finally getting around to offloading some pictures from my camera via its SD card. My netbook (Eek) has a slot to take SD (and several other types) of memory cards on its right hand side. My work laptop, has a similar slot on the left hand side; it also happens to have a slot loading optical drive (rather than the traditional tray).
So, there I was, not really paying attention, and reaching over to insert the SD card into my work laptop, when I realized I had just placed it into my optical drive’s slot. Ooops… no biggie, right? Not like I pushed it in all the way. So I lean over and attempt to pinch it to grab it out. Turns out, I should have gone for my pliers, because instead of grasping it, I pushed it further inside.
If I had had a CD/DVD in the drive, I could probably have just hit eject and it would have pushed it out as the disc left the drive. Unfortunately, I had no such disc. At this point, I shutdown the laptop, removed the power cord (and all the other cables), removed the battery, and held down the power button for 10 seconds (to clear any residual charge). Then I flipped the laptop over and attempted to let gravity do its thing. Sadly for my attempts to remove the card (but good in the long run), the drive has a small dust cover which is helping to keep the card hostage.
Now we move onto the “men-wielding-tools” portion of this entry.
Using the bent (in an S shape) paperclip that I normally hang my keys from, I bent the longer portion a bit more to serve as a better catch for my SD card. I then, gently, insert the modified paperclip into my slot drive and started fishing for my SD card. It took about 10 minutes to retrieve the card, during which I was lifting the laptop at different angles to try and help myself, but eventually I got it out. All without having to remove a screw. Hopefully, y’all haven’t had to do anything like this, and never will. How’s the saying go? “Some people’s purpose in life is to be an example for others (not to follow)”