Try the same disc in a different computer - see if performs similarly.

Don't be too down-hearted. A good quality USB disk drive is a lot cheaper than replacing the internal Apple drive.

As said, a good USB drive is a much more economic option than [replacing] the internal CD drive in the iMac.

It was a good thing on the Mini that the latest generation doesn't even have an internal CD/DVD drive. I have an LG USB that works a treat, though I think this has gone out of production now.

I would save what is left of the internal drive by using an external USB drive from now on.

ATB from George

BigH, You have not mentioned how old the machine is and if you have Applecare. If you have Applecare don't even bother messing about with it. Book in to the Apple "Genius Bar" and get it sorted free(ish).

My Grandsons iMac drive has gone faulty in that it reads audio CD's fine but just eject a DVD after about a minute of hunting about. There are two lasers in the super drives and basically the DVD one has gone. I always buy the Applecare or it would have cost me £118 to repair.

Model is 2.8 GHz Intel Core2 Duo 2008, Apple care has finished. 

That's a shame. You could just get them to have a look anyway. It costs nothing, then depending on what they say go for an external one.

I did e-mail my local iStore but as yet have received no reply.

If you to the website for your local Apple store, mine is  Highcross Leicester. Click on "Genius Bar" then "Make a Genius Bar Reservation". Here you can book yourself in, at a time that is convenient for you. Take your iMac in and they will power it up and do diagnostics there and then in the store, no need to take keyboard or mouse. They will then tell you what's wrong and give you a quote for the work if any. You can leave at that point or book it in.

My local Apple shop is an iStore run by Albion computers, they do repairs but don't seem to run the Genius Bar. I'll pop in tomorrow and see what they say.

Is it worth getting a CD/DVD/BR USB burner/player if S/D is too much money?

Update, As I was passing, I went into our iStore and had a chat. One possibility the guy said was as I now store iTunes data on a NAS/server iTunes ripping has to double shuffle the rip so it may slow down the process or indeed incur more reads of the CD, he has suggested using the DVD part to check how it deals with them.

Not sure about that BigH. My iTunes library of almost 3000 CD's is on a NAS and I just pop a disc into the MacMini and it does the ripping and ejects it. I do notice that some CD's, even new ones, are slower than others to rip. However I don't notice any "shuffling about". Having said that it doesn't take much time to do as he suggests.

To answer your previous question... If you are losing confidence in the drive and a new one doesn't cost too much then I would personally get a USB attached drive and start using that instead. At least you won't get caught out if the internal one goes at some random time of day or night.

Go to Disk Utility in Utilities folder and then select the drive ID and see if the SMART indicator indicates a problem.  Also run the Verify Disk option to do a more detailed check. If it shows a problem then boot the machine off the setup DVD and select the Utility Option (before you start the full install) and then go to Disk Utility to repair the drive - - AFTER you have ensured that you have a backup of the drive.

Then restore the drive. 

Look at the OWC website to determine how easy it is to change the drive - this web site will give you an idea of what drive to buy in the UK.

Only use a USB connected drive to store backups on and not to run the system on a day to  day basis (they are incredibly slow)

I thought that BigH was worried about the optical super drive in his iMac.

Yes I was a bit confused by Dereks post as I was trying to match my computer to his instructions, any way I know a bit more about my hard drive.

Strangely the optical drive seems to have reverted to working properly, some times a bit noisy, but CDs and DVDs rip/play fine ATM. 

Sorry - I must pay attention repeat etc etc

No problem Derek I've done something similar in the past. I'm sure most members have done the same at some point.

BigH, the optical drive in my MacMini was noisy but continued to work. As it was new I took it back to Apple. They said it could potentially fail at any time so they swapped the whole Mini and moved the extra memory across. Just a heads up. 

Thanks for your time and replies guys.

iShop man said  £90-100 for drive change, so not too bad, I'll wait and see might even look at getting a new machine.

Oooooh, another shiny new toy to play with. Good luck BigH and enjoy.

BigH

before you spend that much, a quick look at new machines will demonstrate that many now don't include an optical drive.

However, plenty like this available: