CD stuck--MacBook cannot boot

An old school manual method is to stick a credit card into the drive slot enough to hold the disk From spinning . After the startup process tries to read the disk 2 or 3 times it will eject it in disgust .

Five ways to eject a stuck CD or DVD from the optical drive

Ejecting the stuck disc can usually be done in one of the following ways:

1. Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the left mouse button until the disc ejects.

2. Press the Eject button on your keyboard.

3. Click on the Eject button in the menubar.

4. Press COMMAND-E.

5. If none of the above work try this:

Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder. At the prompt enter or paste the following:

/usr/bin/drutil eject.

If this fails then try this:

Boot the computer into single-user mode. At the prompt enter the same command as used above. To restart the computer enter "reboot" at the prompt without quotes.

I just dealt with a similar issue.

1) Power down machine by holding the power button for 10 seconds.

2) Power up and hold down option key until the gray screen appears with icons showing the bootable drives and partitions

3) Hold down the eject key until the CD ejects, if it does not then you have physical problems. Apple Store is your best bet then.

4) Assuming the CD ejected, insert your latest Apple OS X Installer DVD, wait for it to appear in the list and select it (mouse or arrows keys), press enter, and wait

5) When the installer DVD boots, choose the utility menu and select Disk Utility

6) In Disk Utility select the boot partition and push the button Repair Disk (lower right).

Hi, pls need help. can't eject a data DVD from the drive. just keeps making sounds like its coming out but doesn't and goes back into the drive. I've tried restarting,holding down Command+E, nothing.
THanks for your suggestions.
Regards,
ChAz.

Hi Chiemela,

First of all, try holding down either the eject button or the trackpad or mouse button while starting up instead of Command E.

Secondly, when you say it "goes back into the drive" do you mean it appears and then disappears? What happens if you simply yank it out when it starts to emerge?

Cheers

Rod

How about if you use Disc Utility (in your Utilities folder)?

Does the disc appear in it, even if as "unmounted"? Can you "see" it, and use the "Eject" option in the "File" menu or the DU window top bar then?

Cheers

Rod

humph, thanks R,just tried that now,the DVD's actually mounted. but still stuck. ....looks like it might be a mechanical issue then?(n there's no service centre in Nigeria)(can't even begin to think of the stress of sending it all the way to the States:-( ...) Thanks for the help though.
Regards, ChAz.

In that case you might want to take a look at the iFixit instructions for removing an optical drive, and taking out a stuck disc, ChAz.

The process for removal differs a little from model to model - for the late 2007 / early 2008 models you will find them HERE (the same site has specific instructions for earlier and later models too, so if this is not what you have then take a look around).

Once the drive has been removed the process of removing the stuck disc is reasonably simple - see HERE.

If you don't feel confident enough to undertake the task yourself, and in the absence of any way of getting it to an authorised Apple repairer, then if you take the instructions to a good local notebook computer repair shop they should be able to do it for you without too much risk.

I see a couple of possible (probably unofficial) Apple places in Lagos mentioned at http://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-376297.0.html though.

http://www.ishopA.com/ might be worth a look too.

Cheers

Rod

Did you try the last one - booting into single-user mode?

Hi Rod,tnx for replying. No,it doesn't appear/emerge, it doesn't come out at all!
I'v tried holding down the Eject button while starting up, nothing.

🙂 Thanks a million Rod!
Got the disk out, now it's not refusing to burn c.d.'s. It keeps giving the error code (0x8002006E). what can i do? Please help.

🙂 Thanks a million Rod!
Got the disk out, now it's not refusing to burn c.d.'s. It keeps giving the error code (0x8002006E). what can i do? Please help.