Rectangular peg in larger rectangular hole

July 26, 2007 10:37 AM

AACK! Accidentally, put old 3 1/2" floppy disk into the zip disk drive on my desktop. I can't get it out and the clicking sound is making me crazy.

Yes, I am an idiot. I am moving offices and cleaning everything out. I had a stack of old 3 1/2" floppies that I wanted to be sure didn't have anything important on them. I was speeding my way through and then accidentally fed one of them into the zip disk drive that is right below the floppy drive. I cannot seem to pry it out (although I don't have any tools, e.g., pliers, here at work) and the drive reader WILL NOT STOP driving to read the disk, making the most annoying clickity-click sound. Please help me before I have to tell my department administrator who will berate me endlessly before helping. Taking suggestions for how to either: 1) get disk out or 2) stop computer from trying to read it. (I never use the zip drive, obviously.)

posted by picklebird to computers & internet (10 comments total)

Well, I wasted my weekly question. . . I managed to pry it out using a heavy-duty paper clip. Phew.
posted by picklebird at 10:43 AM on July 26, 2007

Mark yourself Best Answer. And if you have a life-threatening situation and need to borrow my question this week, just holler.

And if you use the borrowed question to ask what to name your cat, I swear by all that is holy I will track you down, kill you, revive you, kill you again, then hurt you.
posted by The Deej at 10:56 AM on July 26, 2007 [2 favorites has favorites]

For next time: The answer to (2) is "Shut down computer".
posted by mendel at 11:03 AM on July 26, 2007

For future floppiers: I've had success with tweezers.
posted by kables at 11:53 AM on July 26, 2007

I like needle nose pliers, personally.
posted by IronLizard at 1:40 PM on July 26, 2007

Yeah, i was just going to say "Pull really hard"
posted by delmoi at 1:44 PM on July 26, 2007

Scissors function as pliers in a non-toolkit-available emergency, and the pointed tips are often easier to insert into tight spaces anyway. I did exactly this once. (Who decided it would be a good idea to put a zip drive there anyway?!)
posted by anaelith at 5:20 PM on July 26, 2007

What's a Zip drive???????

(just kidding)
posted by The Deej at 7:00 PM on July 26, 2007

I would guess there are some good suggestions on Usenet.

My first thought when I read this question was "Is it 1999 again?"
posted by FuManchu at 12:39 PM on July 27, 2007

Pop the case open and pull the plug on the zip drive
posted by misterbrandt at 12:57 PM on July 27, 2007