How do I eject a disk?
I can't figure out how to eject a disk from the SuperDrive.
Is this a good question?
Score
95
102490
14 Answers
Chosen Solution
Rep: 678.3k
3k
1k
2.6k
Start up while holding down (pressing on) the trackpad.
Was this answer helpful?
Score
22
my laptop is a school laptop and i have pressed the eject putton and the esc button and it still wont come out please help
Start up holding down the Trackpad Button.
Thank You holding down the trackpad worked.
what is the trackpad button?
Just depress the track pad, there is no button.
Most Helpful Answer
Rep: 553
2
1
1
I'm pretty sure the person asking the question is not asking how to eject a disk with it's image mounted on the desktop.
Quick way: Go to Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility and choose First Aid. You'll see your drives, including the CD/DVD drive. You will see the disk that is stuck in there, but it will be grayed out. Click on it to select it. See the eject button above the list? Click that and the disk will pop out.
A disk that isn't even recognized by the Disk Utility can be dealt with by using Terminal. Launch Terminal, located at /Applications/Utilities. In the Terminal window, enter one of the following three commands: If you have a single optical drive: drutil eject
If you have both an internal and external optical drive, use the appropriate command below, depending on which drive has the stuck CD or DVD:
drutil eject internal or
drutil eject external
Press return or enter after entering one of the above commands in Terminal. The stuck CD or DVD should be ejected.
Was this answer helpful?
Score
46
you are a genius omg thank you so much!
you ARE a GENIUS! Thank you. I would have spent hours trying to figure this out, and with your help, whoever you are, it was just a couple of minutes. YEAH!
For those of you struggling the same way as me...an old CD put into the superdrive, wouldn't even mount, just churned away, not on the desktop, not even showing in the drive utility etc. Terminal DRUTIL EJECT didn't work. DRUTIL EJECT EXTERNAL did. Guess it was counting the internal hard drive as something to try and eject first. Anyway, IT WORKED!
omg thax man/womn it acuttaly worked thanks
Thank you for your expertise! Just was so frustrating as it was not showing up in Finder. Saved hours of frustration.
Rep: 85
1
1
I cannot tell you how happy I am, I have just got a stuck disc ejected from the darn superdrive.
I am using external superdrive on my iMac, I put in a disc, it started spinning, rev up and rev down, no mounting what so ever, no icon, no stopping. I restart and shutdown/reboot many times, no luck. checked on line for different suggestions and tried many of those, still no luck. That had been 2 hours or 3 hours I had worked on it and I got very frustrated. I was about to give up, then I suddenly had an idea. I pulled the superdrive away from the iMac and plug into my windows pc sitting next to me, boot up, and BINGO!! the disc got ejected when windows was up and running. Guess that it is a good idea to use both windows and Mac together.
Was this answer helpful?
Score
7
not sure about how to solve the problem if the drive was built in. I vaguely recall that, many years ago when I once worked for Apple, someone inside told me that superdrive of apple notebook can be slave drive to another apple computer, maybe that is still the case, and just hook the two laptops together and the disc might eject....wild guess only though.
w00t! Worked so well that I joined here just to thank you - thank you very much! :D
Thanks so much. Not sure why doing such a simple process should be so involved, but your help is sincerely appreciated.
Easy and simple. Joined to thank you! ;)
Oh my GOD, you are a genius!! It took me 3 minutes to accomplish that task!!! After I plugged it into my HP laptop running Windows 7, I had to go to devices, locate the superdrive, right click on the icon, and I was able to eject the disk from what is called drive E. I, too, spent a good 45 minutes trying to figure this out and got frustrated. THANK YOU!!! (Jim)
Rep: 73
1
1
My wife: The external drive is not recognized and the CD is stuck in the external drive (SuperDrive).
Me: Did you put two cds inside it?
My wife: no.
I tried all the tips above, they did not work for me.
I inserted an empty envelope from my energy bill and I slowly pull it out. Success! The FIRST cd was out.
For the SECOND cd I used the "/usr/bin/drutil eject" trick.
Was this answer helpful?
Score
6
Can I ask what you did with the envelope? I am in the same situation and tried your suggestion. The disk is pushing hte envelope out but then goes back in. I too have two discs stuck in the drive (I hadn't realized the first was in because when I pressed eject, nothing came out)
I pushed the envelope in, trying to keep it on top of the disks. Try to insert the envelope as far as possible, then try to run "/usr/bin/drutil eject" from the terminal to activate the eject mechanism and in the same time pull out the envelope slowly to help the eject. Good luck!
the envelope trick worked after all else failed. Just slide it in on top of the disc and pull slow and steady. It took a couple of repetitions, but it came out enough that I could grip it with my fingers, and then it came right out
Rep: 85
1
1
1. Press the eject key in the top right corner of the keyboard. (Not present in a macbook air)
2. Drag disk icon from desktop to trash can.
3. Right click on disk icon and click eject.
4. Use disk utility to manually force unmount the inserted disk from within the superdrive. This will cause it to eject.
Was this answer helpful?
Score
5
After 2 days trying to figure how to eject and reading the gobbly gook about holding down the trackpad, what the heck is a tracpad ? The best answer on this blog. Simple, Genius, just press eject on the keyboard. Thank you
that doesn't work for me
The first aid worked great for me for my Apple external superdrive. Thank you so much.
Rep: 49
1
Assuming you are on a macbook air. One way is to go into finder and under FINDER in menu bar click on preferences. Click on sidebar button at top of pop up window. Bottom of list is devices, check the box for show cds, dvds on desktop. Go to the desktop and control click (right click ) on the cd/dvd icon and choose eject. You can also drag the cd/dvd icon to the trash can which will turn into an eject button.
Was this answer helpful?
Score
4
Thank you so much this was exactly what i needed!!
Thank you very much. This solution worked for my 15 inch MacBook Pro Retina.
Rep: 37
1
Just figured this out. FIRST you have to go to Finder-> preferences then click the button that lets you see CD/DVD on desktop. THEN you can drag that CD to the trash and it will eject! it took me over a year to figure this out (but clearly it was not super important to me...)
Since I'm here... is my SuperDrive capable of burning? and burning what?
Thanks
Was this answer helpful?
Score
3
you can play and burn both CDs and DVDs with the Apple USB SuperDrive. It’s perfect when you want to watch a DVD movie, install software, create backup discs, and more. http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD564Z...
Rep: 13
1
To save time and energy connect the super drive to any windows pc and then eject the dvd as normal. Works every time.
Was this answer helpful?
Score
1
Rep: 13
1
Go to Terminal
Type in:
/usr/bin/drutil eject
Then hit return key
Worked instantly!
Was this answer helpful?
Score
1
Rep: 13
1
All good suggestions but none worked in my case. I was able too solve by opening Preferences and looked for CD & DVDs icon. Opened it and selected the checkbox to show the EJECT in the menubar. BOOM poppeed out like a cork
Was this answer helpful?
Score
1
None of these worked for me. I put the disc in to see what was on it strangely I burnt the computer desktop to the disc it then recognised it came up on my desk top and was able to eject
Was this answer helpful?
Score
0
The drive sometimes has trouble reading an old dvd.
In my case the dvd won’t mount on the desktop. By accident I discovered that while the drive is still plugged in I do a barrel roll. In other words I slowly rotate the drive upside down. Somehow that helps the head read the disc, then it mounts on the desktop. I can then eject it if necessary.
Was this answer helpful?
Score
0
I had this problem but I realized that most apple external keyboards have an eject button. Tried It, and mine worked. Even apple says It works. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202665
Was this answer helpful?
Score
0
Even though this was an old thread it solved my problem perfectly. Make sure NOT to include the speech marks in the phrase at either end and be sure to wait a while - as it does seem that before the disc ejects! Many thanks indeed.
Was this answer helpful?
Score
0
90 Comments
Is a disc stuck inside?
by Jay Curts
tried all of the above. The external drive is not recognized and the CD is stuck in the external drive
by Sharon Andersen
I have a external Superdrive but this might work for you...on your computer search for program "Terminal", after opening it type in "drutil eject external "
by janethattem
awesome! I just had a similar problem and the Terminal command worked perfectly. Thank you.
by vgschnip
This worked perfectly! Thanks!
by Brandi Daniels
Show 85 more comments