I have a 2 year old MacBook with a dead optical drive (started rejecting the odd disc, now rejects them all without even spinning). Tried repairing permissions, tried cleaning lens of drive with a cloth around a credit card.

I'm pretty sure it's dead, and since I don't use it that much I'll probably get an external drive. My question is, and forgive me if it sounds silly, but can I remove the dead one and either leave the space empty to reduce the weight, or is there a way to mount another hard drive there?

Thanks!