My G5's internal CD/DVD drive died, so we got a nice external La Cie CD/DVD drive. Is there a way to get the Eject key on the keyboard mapped to work with the external drive now? Thanks for the help.
I know that you can use to open a second internal drive, but don't know if that works with external ones, too. If it does not work, you can perhaps use the eject menu item. Go to /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/ and double-click on Eject.menu. This will add an eject menu item to the upper right.
AFAIK, you can't remap the eject key to work with an external burner. However, these Terminal app commands will do what you want:
*drutil eject -drive <manufacturer>*
*drutil tray close -drive <manufacturer>*
In your case, try LaCie.
Alternatively, since you have only one external drive you could just fire off this Applescript:
property drawerstatus : true
if drawerstatus is true then
do shell script "drutil eject -drive external"
else
do shell script "drutil tray close -drive external"
end if
set drawerstatus to not drawerstatus
Attach it to a key using System Preferences or your method of choice. The first press will open the tray and the next will close it. Worst case, it takes two presses if something interferes with the tray.
Both the Terminal commands and the Applescript script work great. Only I am not proficient in these programs and cannot figure out where to put them to be able to hit a key and make them work. I put the title of the script in the Keyboard Shortcuts list and assigned it to F11, but hitting F11 after that does nothing. The Terminal commands were fast, but I don't know where they reside and how to activate them. Any further help would be much appreciated. Thanks!
Sorry, I can't help with attaching the Applescript to a shortcut—the original hint was collected years ago, but I never implemented that option. Search the Applescript forum under OS X Technologies or post your query there. For the Terminal commands, you use the Terminal app or build a script to run it. Once again, try the Unix forum in the same location. One way to go is to put the script onto the dock and just click it.
