Apple Tips #3 – Ejecting a Stuck Disc from a Mac Superdrive

It’s all about discs today, folks.

You know what’s snappy? Having a CD/DVD Superdrive on your Mac that is nothing more than a little slit on the side. It’s unobtrusive and stylish, and oh so fun to glide a disc into and wait for that moment when it grabs hold with its little motor finger and swallows the media. That sounded kind of sexual. My my.

You know what’s not snappy? When the stupid Superdrive chooses to not eject your disc. With no open/close button, no drive bay door and no way to grasp the actual drive mechanism at all, it can be a real hassle to get your disc back when your computer doesn’t feel like providing. The worst part is that there is no one, definitive, foolproof means of getting the disc back out. As such, and to save you the stress of scouring the internet for a multitude of ideas that may or may not work in your particular situation, I have compiled just about every remedy I’ve ever heard of here for you to try.

Sometimes, Apple is just too fancy for its own good. I’ve personally always hated the button-eject Superdrive. The reason a disc won’t eject is because it’s stuck in an endless spin – some remnant of control from a piece of software is keeping its motor running, and it won’t eject as long as it thinks it’s doing something.

These strategies, of course, are for when the obvious options don’t work. Always try pushing the eject button, dragging the disc icon to the trash and do a right-click eject before trying anything more drastic. Sometimes it’s only the button that won’t listen and one of those other strategies will.

—Select the DVD icon and press CMD and E.

—Try the Terminal command. Open up Terminal and type drutil eject. That stands for drive utility eject, which tells your disc drive it’s time to spit it out. This is usually one of the most effective methods.

—Launch Disk Utility and select the media in the sidebar. Click eject, which is at the top of the window.

—Reboot the computer and hold down the left mouse button (or the trackpad button on a MacBook). Hold it down all the way until the login screen appears, when it just might release the disc.

—Grab a business card or other small piece of paper made out of heavier-weight stock. Slip it into the disc slot (hold on tight!) and try to disrupt the rotation of the ever-spinning disc. If the drive senses the disc is spinning improperly it often spits it out.

—Similarly, tilt your MacBook so the drive faces down and shake it gently while pressing the eject button. This will also help throw off its spinning and force an eject.

—Reboot into open firmware (reboot while holding CMD + O + F) and type eject cd when the prompt comes up.

—Open iTunes and attempt using its triangular Eject Disk button.

—Some Macs have a small hole near the disc drive. This is made for the insertion of a paper clip that manually triggers the eject mechanism. If your computer doesn’t have this hole, don’t try drilling your own.

—If you have Toast Titanium installed, choose Eject Disk from its menu bar.

—Turn it off, wait a little while, then turn it back on. It just might pop itself out on reboot.

—Reboot while holding down the C key. This tells the system you are attempting to install software off the CD. Once the drive realizes it’s not an install disc, out it comes.

—Smash it with a bat. This only works once.

If you’ve been dealing with a stuck CD or DVD, I can almost guarantee one of these tips will help solve your problem. Good luck!