Eject a stuck CD/DVD from your MacBook Pro
Is a DVD or CD stuck in your MacBook or MacBook Pro? Having a disk jammed in your Mac is really frustrating.
Eject a stuck CD/DVD from a MacBook Pro
If you have already tried holding down the Eject key on your keyboard to no avail, try these tips to ditch that pesky DVD from the drive:
* Launch the Terminal and type the following at the command line: drutil eject
* Reboot the MacBook / MacBook Pro and hold down the mouse/trackpad button as the Mac boots, the disk should pop out.
CD still stuck in the MacBook?
If you have a really stubborn stuck CD, you can also try the following. This tip was sent in by an ex-Apple genius:
* Shut down the Mac and boot the machine holding down the Trackpad button to initiate a ‘force eject’
* Turn the MacBook Pro on its side, CD/DVD drive pointing down, and shake, the CD should pop out
The CD is still stuck! Now what??
Did the above tips not work to eject the disk? If a DVD is completely stuck in the MacBook / MacBook Pro drive and it’s still spinning, you can also try this trick: get a small piece of thin cardboard (business card or a credit card works fine too) and insert it above the stuck DVD and press down slightly to stop the disk from spinning, now reboot the MacBook while holding down the trackpad button and you should hear the familiar eject sound, then disk should come right out. Be careful not to damage the disk or your drive though!
I have successfully gotten a jammed CD out of an MBP before by using a credit card and a plastic knife
I thought my MBP ate a CD last week. Turned out that since I had Windows running in VMWare, it had taken over the CD drive.
These suggestions make me cringe. Carboard? Creditcards? Butterknives?
I understand that if the CD is stuck you have to get it out somehow, but yikes! Next time, if possible, try this:
1. Attach an external DVD drive and place an OSX disk in the drive
2. Boot the computer off the external drive by holding the option key and selecting the OSX boot DVD
3. Once setup has loaded, go to the utilities menu and select terminal
4. Eject the stuck disk with the drutil eject command from above
If #4 fails try the eject key. Or, if that fails, eject from disk utility under the utilities menu.
It’s worked for me, even when all other software-based methods have failed (including those mentioned here). I think it’s because setup doesn’t automatically start looking for CDs in the drive, so it never gets stuck in the spin-up cycle. *shrug* my two cents.
[...] are numerous ways to eject a DVD from a Mac, but using a relatively unknown menubar item you can do this directly from the menubar [...]
thanks
I shook it and it worked! Thank you so much!
Thank you so much! You saved me!!
Thank you so much. Worked like a charm.
t.w.
Thanks so much, my disc has been stuck a few days now. I tried the thin cardboard (a bookmark actually) and it worked, when nothing else did. I stopped the disc from spinning, did a force shut down. Held down the track pad as it was rebooting and it came out FINALLY. Thanks again and Bless the Lord Jesus Christ.
haha, it actually worked! the dvd was making this sickly spinning grindy noise. terminal command did not work. rebooting with the trackpad held down did not work. however, sticking a piece of card paper in and stopping the disc spinning + rebooting with trackpad down did work!
thanks people of the internet
You saved me forcing a teaser in there to force it out or using thin plastic with sticky tape on it – because your first suggestion worked.
Yay terminal worked! was getting worried there thanks!
Thanks for the tips.
Combination of terminal + credit card worked a charm.
Drive working again \o/
Thanks! The terminal solution worked like a charm and I had the benefit of making me feel like a real Geek.
Me too – thanks
Using the name card recommendation (last advice above) worked for me. Thanks for the tip!
Thanks so much, nothing else worked so used the knife and credit card worked like a charm THANK YOU!!!
thks the trick of the small piece of thin cardboard (business card or a credit card worked out
Thank you for advine on stuck DVD.
reboot w/ trackpad helped – THANK YOU!
Credit card + Trackpad/Reboot Worked Like Magic .. can’t thank you guys enough .. BTW u need to stick the credit card all the way in for it to work ..
Thank you SO much! Tip 2 totally worked!
[...] to be connected to the same eject mechanism of just dragging a disk to the Trash, so if you have a stuck disc it’s probably not going to be as effective as a forced [...]
Oh this little trick with the card worked like a dream. What a miracle. Thank you!