I just got my iMac yesterday and having some teething troubles. I put in an audio CD for the first time and I got a prompt from iTunes. Too busy at present, I shut iTunes down and tried to eject the CD using Command-E and the same instruction from the menu bar. The CD is still stuck in the drive. Shouldn't I be able to see the CD drive or an icon representing the disc on my desktop? There's nothing there. How do I get the CD out?
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Cannot eject CD from my iMac!
- Thread starter stringtheorist
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Well, you might have the preference to see CD's and iPods on your desktop as icons shut off. I'm not sure. But, have you tried using the "Eject CD" key on the iMac keyboard? It's right next to the volume buttons. Try that.
reboot and hold down the primary click mouse button (if you have a 2 button mouse) Holding down the primary click will eject the disk when the mac is booting.
the mouse trick didn't work for me, this did:
i had this problem tonight, tried everything on apple/support, no work!!!
called support, the first thing he suggested worked, apparently a secret i haven't seen anywhere else!!! i searched for two freakin' hours, and 5 minutes on the phone worked!!!
shut computer down, while holding the eject button on the wireless keyboard, turn computer on, eject as designed!!!
i tried at least 5 other suggestions at least twice each to no avail before this.
2008 intel based imac
tried;
dragging icon to trash can. NO GO
ejecting from itunes. NO GO
eject via disc util. NO GO (gave message "unable to unmount", with no clue what to do!)
reboot while holding Opt-Comm-O-F. NO GO
eject in terminal. NO GO
i had this problem tonight, tried everything on apple/support, no work!!!
called support, the first thing he suggested worked, apparently a secret i haven't seen anywhere else!!! i searched for two freakin' hours, and 5 minutes on the phone worked!!!
shut computer down, while holding the eject button on the wireless keyboard, turn computer on, eject as designed!!!
i tried at least 5 other suggestions at least twice each to no avail before this.
2008 intel based imac
tried;
dragging icon to trash can. NO GO
ejecting from itunes. NO GO
eject via disc util. NO GO (gave message "unable to unmount", with no clue what to do!)
reboot while holding Opt-Comm-O-F. NO GO
eject in terminal. NO GO
Though this will sound a bit extreme, I last time put a knife in the CD slot (very slightly in it) and twisted it to open it up a bit AND PRESS the eject key and it worked
Never did it after but never have had it stuck since
Just a last resort
Never did it after but never have had it stuck since
Just a last resort
An index card worked!
Unwilling to use a knife to bend my wife's 24-inch iMac, I tried a 3 by 5 index card. Just slipped it about half-way in and bent the part in my hand to the front, hoping to thus angle the part in the machine behind the disk and thus guide it out. And it happened!
As soon as the disk began to peek out of the slot, I quickly slid the index card out, and the disk continued its normal leisurely exit. I surmise that the disk was somehow hung up inside the drive, not hitting the exit slot correctly.
I didn't even have to press the eject button, because the Mac had been trying every few seconds to actually eject the disc, since my wife clicked the eject button. The disk unmounted, but it would not eject. Every few seconds, the drive would make its ejection sound, but the sound would abort with a clunk. I tried a number of other remedies, including restart with the mouse button pressed, etc. None of the software remedies had a chance, because the disc was not visible to the software. Disk Utility saw the drive, but just kept waiting for the disk.
Hope this helps someone. My wife's iMac is under warranty, but it's heavy and awkward to lug into the local Apple Store, which is in the center of the area's biggest shopping mall.
Unwilling to use a knife to bend my wife's 24-inch iMac, I tried a 3 by 5 index card. Just slipped it about half-way in and bent the part in my hand to the front, hoping to thus angle the part in the machine behind the disk and thus guide it out. And it happened!
As soon as the disk began to peek out of the slot, I quickly slid the index card out, and the disk continued its normal leisurely exit. I surmise that the disk was somehow hung up inside the drive, not hitting the exit slot correctly.I didn't even have to press the eject button, because the Mac had been trying every few seconds to actually eject the disc, since my wife clicked the eject button. The disk unmounted, but it would not eject. Every few seconds, the drive would make its ejection sound, but the sound would abort with a clunk. I tried a number of other remedies, including restart with the mouse button pressed, etc. None of the software remedies had a chance, because the disc was not visible to the software. Disk Utility saw the drive, but just kept waiting for the disk.
Hope this helps someone. My wife's iMac is under warranty, but it's heavy and awkward to lug into the local Apple Store, which is in the center of the area's biggest shopping mall.
The related problem that I have with most recent computers is that they rely on electronic opening of the optical drive. It used to be that when you pressed the eject button, the drive would stop whatever it was doing, the power would be shut off, and the tray would pop out. Now, everything from iTunes to OS X "thinking" that it's using the drive for something means that the eject button is ignored. The only way around it is to force the tray open or to force the slot-loading drive to spit out the disc, which is not acceptable.
When I say "eject", I mean "eject now" because there is something that the software is doing wrong or I need to leave immediately, not when you've unmounted all volumes or when you're done storing the read-ahead cache. Just open the stupid tray already!
When I say "eject", I mean "eject now" because there is something that the software is doing wrong or I need to leave immediately, not when you've unmounted all volumes or when you're done storing the read-ahead cache. Just open the stupid tray already!
Just type it in and hit return.
Attachments
The same thing has happened to me. Turn off the PC and unplug it. Insert the open end of a paperclip into the Force Eject hole on the bottom-right of the CD tray, and push in to force the tray to eject. Remove the CD-ROM from the tray, and push the CD tray back in to close it. Plug in the PC and turn it back on. The CD drive should sense that the tray is empty and closed, and begin working normally again, and OS X will stop malfunctioning when it boots.
If the problem happens again, either something is wrong with the CD-ROM or something is wrong with the CD drive. Test the CD in a standard audio player before putting it back into the CD-ROM drive on the PC.
Edit: I noticed that there are some claims that new iMacs do not have a standard Force Eject hole. What kind of idiot makes a CD drive that relies on electronic controls to open and close? My car has a Force Eject for the CD tray! If this problem applies to you, I suggest that you may have to open the iMac and unplug the CD drive, and then figure out how to force the tray to spit out the CD. Next time, don't buy an optical drive that doesn't have a way to override the software control.
Ejecting with Parallels Desktop
I have the same problem when I've got (sorry about this) Windows 7 running under Parallels Desktop. I can see CDs/DVDs in Explorer in Windows, but it disappears from Finder and won't eject using the keyboard command. As soon as Windows is shut down all returns to normal. That will teach me to continue to dabble with the dark side!
I have the same problem when I've got (sorry about this) Windows 7 running under Parallels Desktop. I can see CDs/DVDs in Explorer in Windows, but it disappears from Finder and won't eject using the keyboard command. As soon as Windows is shut down all returns to normal. That will teach me to continue to dabble with the dark side!
holding F12 + restart worked for me
This is the only thing that ejected a disc on an Intel-based iMac I was troubleshooting. No terminal commands in single user mode worked because it wasn't detecting the hardware. Couldn't start up because there was an integrity problem with the hard drive.
My bluetooth keyboard has an eject button but since it never was connected to this computer I had to dredge up an old USB keyboard and holding F12 and restarting (and continuing to hold until the disc ejected) worked.
This is the only thing that ejected a disc on an Intel-based iMac I was troubleshooting. No terminal commands in single user mode worked because it wasn't detecting the hardware. Couldn't start up because there was an integrity problem with the hard drive.
My bluetooth keyboard has an eject button but since it never was connected to this computer I had to dredge up an old USB keyboard and holding F12 and restarting (and continuing to hold until the disc ejected) worked.
That's probably because the drive is mounted by Parallels Desktop. You should be able to unmount the drive in that software and use the Eject button on the drive to open the tray. You have a normal Eject button, right?