A CD or DVD is stuck in my Mac.

Don’t pull it out with pliers; that might destroy the drive. If you are running another operating system (like Windows) at the same time as Mac OS X, you may need to eject the disk in both operating systems. Otherwise try launching iTunes and clicking the Eject button in the lower right corner. If this doesn’t work, try restarting the computer while holding down the trackpad button or mouse button (the left one if you use a 2-button mouse) or holding down the Eject key if your keyboard has one. If this doesn’t work you can try resetting the PMU or SMC on your computer (see the question “What is resetting the Power Manager (PMU) or System Management Controller (SMC)?“ If this doesn’t work, the Mac probably needs to be disassembled to get the disc out, and the drive might even be damaged.

If your Mac has a slot-loading CD or DVD drive, you should insert only regular round 5.25” discs. Mini CDs and novelty CDs (like business-card-shaped discs) will get stuck, and might even void your warranty. We’ve also noticed that disks with thick labels (like bootleg DVDs from Canal Street) tend to get stuck in the slimmer MacBook and MacBook Pro drives. More slot-loading disc drive trouble-shooting tips are listed in Apple’s Knowledge Base article HT2801.

Mac OS X also includes a hidden utility to eject discs. Look in Macintosh HD/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras and double click Eject.menu. This will put a new Eject menu near the clock in your menu bar.

Published March 24, 2009 12:00 PM
Last modified on June 15, 2009 3:31 PM