eject cd won't work

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.

If the disc will still not eject, holding down the trackpad or mouse button after restarting the computer should also eject a disc.

Captfred

Kappy copy and paste beat you out Capt. 😀

But I got another method, could be scary to some, so that make 6 ways.

sudo diskutil eject /dev/disk0s1

I sure miss that little eject hole. 😀

Essentially the same command except in your case you might be ejecting the EFI partition. 🙂 Or something else for that matter. If you used 'diskutil' you need to use 'df' first to find out what the correct device ID is for the optical drive involved. What if you have my Mac Pro with two optical drives?

Hi, Kappy.

If a CD won't eject (I now have this problem after installing Lion), is there any way to tell what application may be using it? All I get is a message saying the CD cannot be ejected because it is in use, but all apps have been quit, and copying from the CD is finished.

There are Windows exe files on the CD, but they were not run.

I am wondering if there is something in Lion that attempts to run those exe files in the background...

Restart the computer, and hold the trackpad button down while it is restarting until it ejects the disc. It can't be in use then.

eww wrote:

Restart the computer, and hold the trackpad button down while it is restarting until it ejects the disc. It can't be in use then.

Well, yes, I know I can do that. But I should not have to interrupt my work and take the time to restart simply to eject a CD. (Although I can Force Eject with Disk Utility).

Interestingly enough, another CD from the same source ejected as expected after file copy completed.

It is possible I inadvertently launched one of the .exe files on the unejectable CD and OS was attempting to run it (but could not).

I have since re-mounted the same CD, opened its window in Finder, and it ejected as expected. So I must have done something to render it un-ejectable the first time.

It would be nice if, instead of simply telling me the CD is in use, the OS would also tell me how it's being used and by what application.

Lots of things that would be nice don't happen. But you can offer your suggestion to Apple here:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

Thanks. Will give feedback.

Just first checking to see if anyone had new info.

I had a CD that would stick occasionally in the iMac G3 slot drive, but not every time. No icon would show and it whirred and then would quit. I tried all the above: restarted with mouse button held down; logged out and back in; reset the PRAM and VRAM; tried eject commands (keystrokes and menu).

Finally I opened Utilities Application; then Disk Utility and then found the stuck CD icon that was greyed (under the internal Disk Burning icon "HL-DT-ST DVDRW GA32N"). I think it then had an option to repair, erase or eject (dont' recall and I'm not putting it in again to find out). Anyway, it worked!

My son's Macbook Pro won't start up. The drive runs, but that's it. He's now running Lion which doesn't have a CD, so I put in my Snow Leopard CD, turned off the computer and turned it on again holding down the C key. The disk doesn't eject. Is there a mechanical way to eject it?

None of the above mentioned methods will work because the operating system won't boot up.

Thanks,

Paula

Holding down the trackpad button while starting up the machine should eject the CD before any attempt is made to load the OS. It's a direct hardware command that doesn't rely on any software to be carried out.

Hi eww:

We found out the the logic board was "destroyed" by a firmware update (go figure) according to a genius at the Genius Bar. Greg's computer is being fixed and I hope to some day retrieve my Snow Leopard CD.

This scenario is one good reason for having a manual way to eject a disk.

I also discovered that his brand new MacBook Pro doesn't provide a way to remove the battery. Unbelievable!

You also can no longer remove the keyboard.

Not having a Lion CD is also a minor irritant.

Steve Jobs was a great guy, but sometimes his arbitrary, idiosyncratic decisions have caused major inconveniences for his customers.

pjmetz wrote:

Hi eww:

We found out the the logic board was "destroyed" by a firmware update (go figure) according to a genius at the Genius Bar. Greg's computer is being fixed and I hope to some day retrieve my Snow Leopard CD.

I hope you told the Genius or technician there was a SL DVD in the drive that you wanted back.

This scenario is one good reason for having a manual way to eject a disk.

This is actually one of a very tiny handful of instances I've encountered in which none of the usually reliable methods worked. There's hardly ever a need for a manual eject. But I agree, it would be handy once in a while. If Apple made the drives, they'd probably have one, but Apple doesn't make optical drives.

I also discovered that his brand new MacBook Pro doesn't provide a way to remove the battery. Unbelievable!

There's no reason to remove the battery. Nothing good can come of doing so.

You also can no longer remove the keyboard.

Why would you want to?

I was a bit stunned by your reply. I wonder if I should bother answering. Of course you need to be able to remove the battery to replace it with a charged battery. Many travellers carry more than one battery, because not every location provides an easy way to recharge a battery.

Also, in the hopefully rare event that the battery breaks or ceases functioning, you can easily substitute a known good one.

Not sure why I have to explain these obvious situations to you. Perhaps your life Is perfect, or you never travel.

Regards.