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When your Mac won't eject a CD or DVD

A public service page for victims of the diskophagous Macintosh computers

If you own a Mac and haven't suffered it yet, thank whatever god you believe in. These computers eat disks and refuse to spit them out. And of course Apple refuses to put a manual disk ejection hole in the drive because that wouldn't suit their cool image. And the drive is not removeable. And the slot is so thin you can't fit tweezers in to grab the edge of the disk...

Here are some tips I found when Googling during my most recent stuck-disk episode

PREVENTION is BEST

Never stick in disks that have labels stuck on them. In a hot Mac, the label peels off and you really are stuck.
Never insert mini-disks. If you forget this, or never knew it, here's a solution: turn off the computer, turn it on its side (slot down) and give it an almighty sharp shake downwards. The minidisk should drop out.
Never insert a disk that is bent, and never insert a disk so violently that you bend it in the process

CURES to TRY

This one is guaranteed to work in some case... It's worked twice for me.

Turn off the computer and walk away. Leave it to cool down for an hour or so. Restart it, press eject and bingo! It will probably spit the disk. The Mac gets so hot, it expands and grabs the disk too tightly to eject it.

1. You can force eject the disk by holding down the mouse click button whilst restarting the computer.
2. If you see a tiny bit of the rim of the disc, try to pull it out with your fingers or tweezers fingers whilst it tries to eject. Warning: using tweezers will probably damage the disk.

3. POWER PC Macs only - a tip from the Apple site

On a PowerPC-based Macintosh (but not an Intel-based Macintosh), you may use Open Firmware to eject a CD or DVD disc when normal methods for ejecting it have not succeeded.

To eject a disc with Open Firmware commands, follow these steps:

  1. Restart the computer.
  2. Immediately after the startup sound, press and hold the key combination Command-Option-O-F.
    Note: The Command key has the Apple and squiggle icons on it.
  3. Release the keys when you see a white screen that says "Welcome to Open Firmware."
  4. At the prompt, type: eject cd
  5. Press Return, then wait a few seconds. The disc drive should eject any disc that is present, and "ok" appears behind your command when the action is complete.
  6. Type: mac-boot
  7. Press Return. Your computer should now start up normally.

 

4. On a 17" Powerbook you can manually eject a DVD/CD with a paperclip. Look for the little hole.
5. Try inserting something like a business card (something thin and firm but flexible) into the slot so it would end up between the top of the disk and the inside ceiling of the drive. When the disk is being ejected, this should be enough to help guide the disk out of the slot. If it does come out enough, you should be able to pull the disk out. Also try automotive feeler gauges which are more narrow and flexible.
6. Hold down the eject key all the through the startup.
7. Hold down the mouse button during startup.
8. Tilt the Mac 45 degrees downwards and try ejecting. The gravity-assist or the angle seems magical.

9. Tips from macrumors.com ...

  • First try the normal methods to remove the disc. Drag its icon to the Trash can in the Dock or select 'Eject' from the File menu.
  • If you have Toast Titanium installed on your computer, choose EJECT DISC from the menubar.
  • Sometimes you can successfully use the eject disc button in iTunes even if the disc is not visible to the Finder
  • Open Disk Utility and choose the disc you wish to eject in the left-hand pane, then click on the Eject button.
  • Some Macintoshes have a paperclip hole that you can insert a straightened paperclip into, manually triggering the eject mechanism.
  • Open Terminal and type "drutil tray eject" to eject the disc/tray, and "drutil tray close" to close the tray.

 

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