What is the sound of one head bashing?

I've had to replace a few failed CD drives in clones over the years. I have *never* needed to replace a CD drive in a Mac.

Until now.

Yes, the combo drive is apparently kaput. Command-E, no eject. Eject/F12, no eject. Restart/F12, no eject. Manually pop drive open with pin--yay! Insert CD and close? Oh, no. No happy spinning for me, it seems.

This is timely, as the screen was being wonky, so I figured I should back up the latest pics and budget stuff before it goes dead and has to go *back* to Apple yet again. Oh, no, no backups for me, unless I beg a friend to let me do it via another mac, treating this as an expensive hard drive. I don't have time for that, though, I don't think. Or maybe I do.

*sigh*

This is really bad timing. I might just have to buy extra memory cards for the camera.

Thing is, I was gonna make an album or two so that I don't need to worry about *real* photos when we visit relatives. Guess not.

I suppose I could hope that the Mac's CD drive just won't work when the ambient temperature is above 85F. Somehow, I doubt that.

Explain brand loyalty to me again, please?