Mar 29, 2019  Restart your Mac while holding down the mouse button. This will usually prompt your Mac to force the CD to eject upon starting back up. If you use a traditional mouse with your Mac, make sure you're holding down the left mouse button. Use Disk Utility to open the CD tray. Nov 07, 2007  If your computer has an eject key on the keyboard, restart the computer again, this time holding the eject key. Open a Terminal window and type in drutil tray eject. If neither of the above work to eject the CD, MacRumors has additional information on how to Force Eject a Stuck CD or DVD.

I tried everything on this page: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=mac/10.4/en/mh1750.html except Open Firmware (Intel macs doesn't support this).

Then I tried using the terminal but this didn't work either.

Every time I bootup my mac the drive tries to eject it but it can't. I ran the Apple Hardware Test (hold d on startup) and it sayed that all is fine. (it also tested the slot in drive).

And I put my mac upside down and booted it up (hoped that the cd could come out) but it didn't work. (same problem)

How can I get that out of my slot in drive? Mayby with a tweezer?

Any ideas?

PS: in finder there's no visible cd and in the diskutility there's nothing too

segiddins

Mac Mini Manually Eject Cd

6 Answers

Recent Apple portable optical drives (i.e. anything < 5 yrs old and not a Mac Pro) no longer have the 'paper clip' levers so your best bet is to take it to a technician that is able to open the mac and safely retrieve the stuck media. If you are curious, iFixit does publish fairly good mac repair guides so you decide to pay someone or DIY. You'll have better luck trying to trigger the eject lever deeper in the right hand side with something thinner than a ruler.

The mechanism is obviously stuck or obstructed if you hear it trying to eject when the software commands an eject.

Forcing things more often causes additional damage rather than somehow inducing the internal eject mechanism to work again. If you are gentle and can tickle the eject lever or gently guide the CD out, your chances of success are that much higher. The cases where a light touch won't work is a signal that permanent damage to the device or the media is imminent.

It's almost always cheaper to buy a USB external if the internal breaks, so factor that into your calculation if you just want to yank out the stuck drive no matter the long term health of your optical drive.

bmike♦bmike

This article from Apple explains how to troubleshoot slot loading drive problems http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2801?viewlocale=en_US

Try rebooting the MacBook while holding the trackpad button down, it should eject the disk shortly after booting

conorgriffinconorgriffin

Mac Mini Manual Eject Download

On the right hand side of the drive, behind the slot, is actually a little switch you can hit with a paper clip that has been straightened.

You aren't really going to see it, but the best way is to take the paper clip, but it up against the side of the slot, then push in. It should hit a little switch, and continue to push a little more and the disk should slide out.

It would be somewhat like this older iMac article, but you won't be able to see it due to the fabric or whatever that is on the slot.

Just be very careful while doing this. Ive done it a dozen times between Minis, PowerBooks, MacBooks, iMacs, etc.

Edit: This link on MacRumors defines the process as well.

jmlumpkinjmlumpkin

Once I've managed to overcome this problem with a pice of cardboard. I inserted the cardboard in the CD slot and made sure to hold the CD by pressing it down. When I rebooted the Mac it actually tried to read the CD and since it was stuck it ejected the disk out. Now I'm not sure if this would work in your case but wouldn't be that difficult to try without damaging the CD disk.

nohillside♦Samantha CataniaSamantha Catania

Mac Mini Force Eject Cd

I have a mid-2010 Mac mini, and a new CD became stuck in the optical drive after importing its tracks to iTunes. The Mac software was telling the drive to eject the disk, and I could hear it trying, but the disk would not come out of the drive slot. Something was blocking it. It was clearly a mechanical problem, and something inside was blocking the disk from ejecting properly.

With computer shutdown and the power cord disconnected, I finally tried a smooth plastic membership card (like a credit card with no raised lettering on top). I gently slipped the short edge of the card straight into the right side of the slot (about a third of the length of the card). I could feel it slide over the obstruction, and felt and heard the obstruction move a little (then I could hear it 'click' up and down again, as I slid the card in and out very gently, so it apparently it had become stuck in the 'up' position and wasn't retracting down properly).

Then I plugged in the power cord and booted. After I logged in, I selected the optical drive, and did a normal Eject operation. The disk popped right out, as it should.

I seldom use the optical drive, and this Mac mini has been running almost continuously for 3 years now as a media hub in my home network. This is the first mechanical issue I've had with this Mac mini.

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Mac Mini Manual Eject Drive

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