Assuming you have a working Mac which can power the external Superdrive (all MacBook Airs, I believe most of the recent MacBook Pros and MacBooks, and possibly recent iMacs as well) then you can eject media simply by booting the machine and holding down the trackpad or main USB mouse button. This is triggered by the Mac's firmware and thus will work even if you OS is hosed.
Searching for "eject stuck dvd" on support.apple.com has a knowledge base article covering this tip as its first hit.
Even the first google hit (for me)[1] covers this as a part of its how to guide.
Of course, if for some reason none of your Macs will even POST or you happen to be Mac-less, and you're nowhere within driving distance of someone with a working Mac or an Apple Store the, yes, disassembling the drive is probably a reasonable option.
> Of course, if for some reason none of your Macs will even POST or you happen to be Mac-less, and you're nowhere within driving distance of someone with a working Mac or an Apple Store the, yes, disassembling the drive is probably a reasonable option.
You forget the part about the damaged cable like what can be seen on a few pictures. If the link between the MacBook and the drive is severed, there is no way a firmware on the laptop could cause the disk to eject. And with no forcible eject trigger you're left with the 'cracking the case open' solution.
Shouldn't happen more than once per drive though, so I guess this is why Apple couldn't be bothered with an actual forcible reject button.
EDIT : he seems to claim that the reboot trick does work, so apparently the cable is still at least partially functional in his case.
Your primary solution, i.e. a complete redundant computer system, seems likely to be a bit more expensive than just buying another drive and another copy of the disk's content.
Assuming you have a working Mac which can power the external Superdrive (all MacBook Airs, I believe most of the recent MacBook Pros and MacBooks, and possibly recent iMacs as well) then you can eject media simply by booting the machine and holding down the trackpad or main USB mouse button. This is triggered by the Mac's firmware and thus will work even if you OS is hosed.
Searching for "eject stuck dvd" on support.apple.com has a knowledge base article covering this tip as its first hit.
Even the first google hit (for me)[1] covers this as a part of its how to guide.
Of course, if for some reason none of your Macs will even POST or you happen to be Mac-less, and you're nowhere within driving distance of someone with a working Mac or an Apple Store the, yes, disassembling the drive is probably a reasonable option.
[1] http://www.macyourself.com/2009/05/01/the-ultimate-guide-to-...