[CubaMark]

I have had a problem with my disk drive where once a disk is inserted, it can't be ejected unless I restart and hold down the button on the trackpad.

Just on the off chance that this may be the issue -- a couple of OS updates ago (10.4.8 or 10.4.9), there was a change made to the Eject button - you now need to hold it down for a couple of seconds to eject a disk, whereas before a simple tap would do the job.