I have an old G4 that still works, although there is a Zip disk in the built in drive. The Zip disk does not appear on the Desktop or in the finder, but the activity light on the drive flashes at startup. How can I eject the Zip disk? I can't throw it in the trash.
G4 500Mhz-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.4.11), Built in Zip Drive
Are you sure there is a disk in the drive? Do you hear it making any noise on startup? You should be able to see the disk edge itself, too... it almost sticks out.
If there's really a disk in the drive, you'll need to gently pull off the face place surrounding the zip and push the eject button (assuming there's no paperclip hole).
The Zip drive's door is flipped up when a disk is inserted, so the disk's rear edge is clearly visible in the drive. You can't miss it. If you see the disk in the drive, is it fully-inserted? If so, have you tried starting up the G4, while holding down the mouse button? As previously mentioned, you may have to remove the faceplate assembly that contains the optical drive's flip-down door and Zip drive bezel. It releases from just inside the front edge of the case by pressing back on (2) release tabs and pivoting it back until it unhooks from the other side. This gives you access to the drive's button or manual eject hole. If your primary concern is the flash of the activity light at startup, you should know that the activity light on all connected drives flashes normally during the POST (Power ON Self Test), whether in a Mac or a PC.
How do I eject a Zip disk from a G4?
