How To Remove A Stuck CD (and a software giveaway)

Troubleshooting a slot drive

I still fiddle with my iMac, and the other day I came across a problem which has spawned today’s “how to” topic — namely, the DVD I was had been watching would not eject out of the ‘slot’. And, the iMac doesn’t have the paperclip hole to forcibly eject a disc from the “superdrive”.

image source: bindapple

The official Apple methods for getting a disc to eject go like this:

1. Press and hold the Eject key on your keyboard.
2. Right-click (control-click) on the disks icon on the Desktop and select “Eject” from the contextual menu
3. Drag the disks icon to the Trash bin within the Dock
4. Select the disc’s icon and hit “Command-E”

More advanced Mac stuck disk eject methods

1. Launch Disk Utility and select the CD/DVD from the sidebar. Click the Eject icon at the top of the Disk Utility screen.
2. Launch the Terminal and type following command: drutil eject, and hit the Return key.
3. If those fail, try restarting your Mac and hold down the mouse button (or trackpad button if you have a laptop) as the system “boots”. Keep holding it down until the system fully restarts (or the disc pops out, whichever comes first).

None of those worked for me, so I had to resort to a manual method. The first thing to try is to tip the machine so the disc drive is vertical to the horizon (slot down), so that gravity can assist, while trying one of the eject methods above.. maybe giving a little shake as well. Hopefully, your disc will “fall out”.

Gravity (and shaking) didn’t help me, so it was time to reach in there with something. Tempting though it is, tweezers are not the tool of choice (as they can/will scratch the disc). I used a stiff business card (though a credit card can work too) with a length of double-sided tape pressed on. Insert the card at the “top” (long side closest to the screen/disc’s ‘label side’) of the slot, with the sticky tape toward the back of the machine (the bottom of the disc drive) and then “fish” the disc out by a slight to-the-back (away)-and-out motion.

If it simply will not come out (even with tweezers), you probably will require disassembly, and probably will need to visit a tech.

Software giveaway: I noticed a decent limited-time software giveaway on BitsDuJour.. which seems to be experiencing some technical difficulties, but you may want to sign up anywho.

Wise Care 365 PRO for PC – Coming Soon

100% Off
$54.00
= $0

“Wise Care 365 PRO is a comprehensive PC tune-up utility that promises to keep your Windows PC secure and running at peak performance.” more

Unrelated: where did this week go?

Also unrelated: 7 Things Your Body Language Is Telling Your Boss

 “From the way you sit in your chair to the color of your tie, nonverbal communication can have a big impact on your professional life. Here’s some advice.” Read more..

Looking back..: Junk mail looks just like it did back in 1997.. doesn’t it?

Because, why change a good thing, right?

Today’s quote: “We are, perhaps, uniquely among the earth’s creatures, the worrying animal. We worry away our lives.” ~ Lewis Thomas

Copyright 2007-2013 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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