Mac Mini won't eject a disc

Since it's making 'eject' type of noises but then nothing happens, it sounds to me like the disk is not clearing the inside of the casing properly - ie, that it's being ejected against the inside of the case rather than into the slot.

Try using a thin piece of card, gently inserted a small distance into the slot to help guide the disc out. If that doesn't work, it may need an Apple authorized person to take the casing off and retrieve the disk. He/she would at that point also need to check that the drive and the casing are properly aligned. A call to Apple should get you sorted with a local service center if there is no Apple store available.

I just had that same problem!

You know, for whatever reason using Roxio Popcorn software I was able to Eject it, but not using anything that Apple says you should do.

If you call AppleCare they will probably tell you to reboot while holding command-option-f-o, then type "eject cd" . If that works, fine. If not they will tell you to go to the Apple store. I was less than impressed last night when it happened to me.

Oleg,

With all due respect, the result may be the same but the symptoms between your case (as per your comments elsewhere where you CD didn't even mount) and this one appear rather different. In your case the CD was clearly not recognized correctly, in this instance it's recognized just fine - just won't come back out.

If the drive is attempting to eject it and failing for the reason I've suggested above, no manner of manual eject attempts would work because the disc is being obstructed by the case - the slot-loading drive is set to take in any disc it senses, and if the eject is obstructed, the drive would sense the presence of the disc and drag it back in.

In that situation, the solution I've suggested has proven to work in the past - though some care is needed of course.

If the casing of the mini is responsible for preventing the eject, it may be that the case and drive are not correctly aligned. This can happen if, for example, the mini's internal assembly is loose, or the casing has been removed and refitted incorrectly. If either of these issues are reposnible, the problem clearly needs to be resolved rather than left at merely ejecting the errant disc presently in the drive.

Interesting that Roxio Popcorn could eject the CD. Would an application like Popcorn be able to 'recognize' the CD, when the Finder could not?

It's not that Popcorn recognizes the CD, and Finder doesn't. It's just that Popcorn has a button in the program, that fires up the CD ejection mechanism.

By the way, this can also be done by going to the Disk Utility built into Mac OS X.

Cathy,
have you tried holding down the mouse button on reboot? Or holding down the OPTION + COMMAND + O + F keys at startup to launch Open Firmware...then typing 'eject cd' at the prompt...then hit return...then wait for CD to eject...then see the 'ok' message acknowledging ejection of CD? (Then type 'mac-boot' and hit return to boot your Mac.) If none of these options work, I'd take it to your local Apple Store and see a Mac Genius. Your mini is undoubtedly still in warranty, since the mini wasn't released until January 11, 2005. A Mac Genius will very likely be able to pinpoint the problem for you, so you'll not only get that CD ejected, but either know how to ensure it never happens again or know how to deal with it, if it does. Good luck.
Macspirit

Open a terminal window and type:
drutil eject

I find it amusing that Apple denies that there is a problem with SuperDrive and that sometimes it cannot eject a disk electronically via normal means (eject button on the keyboard, holding mouse, drutil, open firmware, etc.).

After my nighmarish experience it is taking me awhile to trust apple again.

Apple denies that there is a problem with SuperDrive

Link please.

http://forums.dealmac.com/read.php?1,2396566,2396566

That, I admit, is not SuperDrive specifically but it does describe the general sense out there that the quality of Apple products has declined. I owned 3 Apples in the past 5 years, all of which had something wrong with them.

That, I admit, is not SuperDrive specifically....

Its not quoting an Apple source "denying" problems with anything else in their product line either.

I still own 8 Apple products, bought over the last 15 years. They all continue to work as advertised.

It seems you have had some bad luck and now wish to vent your frustration here with unhelpful, negative messages. If you are experiencing problems with an Apple product, start a thread and describe it. The other users here will try to help you to the best of their collective ability. Hijacking other peoples topics to spread FUD will not win you many friends on these forums.

My Mac Mini won't eject a disc. It's a regular CD,
not one of those strange-shaped ones.

I put it in, and when I try to eject it it makes the
sound of it ejecting but nothing comes out. I've
tried restarting it, ejecting it from the Finder,
ejecting it from the desktop, and restarting it while
holding down the mouse button. All to no avail.

Can someone help me?

Thanks!

hello,

just had the same problem.
i solved it the way my brother did, when he had the same prob with his slot loading powerbook.
i slightly tilted the computer forward (carefully) and the cd came out.
i used the "drutil ecject" commando in the terminal, when my regular eject button didn't work anymore..
whoo, lucky me..

Hello Mark,

I also received the "disc XYZ is in use and could not be ejected" warning, and I went through the motions of having my drive inspected and replaced because not only would it not eject, but the disc would also make a mechanical "back and forth" sound.

Ironically, the problem was not an issue of hardware, and although I thought that I had closed all related software, my anti-virus program was actually in the process of scanning the disc. This is why, only after waiting 10-15min, would the disc eject. I am using ClamXav, and have currently changed the preferences so that "removable media" will not be automatically scanned. This preference change also accounted for the noise made by the disc drive.

This solved my problem, and I hope it can solve this same issue for others.

Happy Solstice!
Alan

I also received the "disc XYZ is in use and could not
be ejected" warning, ....

This is a crucial point, because the above error message does not mean the system is faulty, it simply means that the CD/DVD/External drive could not be unmounted because something on that disk is open. If the culprit can't be found, a reboot (thus exiting any open software) will then usually allow the disk to be properly unmounted.

I have to agree with Oleg. I've just switched to Mac having used PCs for over 15 years. I was initially impressed, until hitting this not ejecting DVD issue. Who designs a DVD/CD drive with no manual override? It's nonsense. I've tried F12, Terminal->drutil tray eject, Disk Utility, reboot, reboot with mouse key down, reboot with Command Option O F.... nothing works. So, looks like I'm taking a trip down to the Apple store. Not impressed.