How do I eject an imaginary disk?

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Level 1

4 points

How do I eject an imaginary disk?

Okay so I tried to play a video on my laptop with an external CD player. I was having trouble finding the CD on my computer and I was playing around with the keys and options. I was not sure what to do so I looked into the option of "burning" CD....yeah please don't judge me...it's supposed to be for putting material on an empty disk and such but I just pressed on it hoping something would happen. So then I apparently made a burn folder and the laptop indicated that there was a CD(the movie I wanted to play) that I could burn my info on...when that was not my intention. So I was in a hurry and I pulled the plug out. But the CD did not eject properly so the macbook thinks there's a CD in it and I cannot logout or shutdown my laptop because I need to eject the "CD"...what should I do

Posted on Apr 27, 2016 7:05 AM

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Answer 1

sterling r

Community Specialist

Apr 28, 2016 2:12 PM in response to ShahoorJ97

Hello there ShahoorJ97,

It sounds like you are unable to restart your computer or turn it off because it seems to think that the external CD drive is still connected. I would relaunch Finder with the Force Quit menu first:

Choose Force Quit from the Apple menu, or press Command-Option-Esc
(this is similar to pressing Control-Alt-Delete on a PC)

From: Force an app to close on your Mac

Select Finder here, and instead of Force Quit like the screenshot above shows, you will see Relaunch instead. You may see your screen flash, and your Dock and desktop items will disappear but they will come right back.

See if you can then restart or shutdown your computer. If not then I would reconnect the drive and then try ejecting it the normal way.

Select the item to eject, then choose File > Eject.

In the Finder sidebar, click the Eject button next to the item’s name.

From: OS X Yosemite: Use external storage devices

If nothing works then you may have to force your Mac to shut down by holding the power button:

If you can't shut down your Mac because it isn't responding, you can force it to turn off without shutting down. Hold down the power button for 5 seconds, until your Mac turns off. Use this method only when you can't shut down. You'll lose any unsaved changes to documents that you have open.

From: How to turn on or turn off your Mac

If the computer still keeps acting as though it is plugged in, I would next reset the SMC on your computer, but I don't believe it will come to that:

Reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities, let us know how that goes!

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