[slick70+]

Surely this must topic must come up often...

Sometimes, when DVD/CD media gets stuck in the drive, what exactly is the procedure for it's removal? The discs spin around and get locked in a loop of "reading disc/can't find info, so I'll re-read the disc". This is obvious from the repetitive noise that it makes. I assume it's because of a fault in the burn process but I find it comical that OS X locks up and refuses to force quit or eject or do anything at all.

Surely, such a sophisticated OS should have "tried 10 times, so I should spit the disc out" written into it? Would you expect an mp3 player to bring down an aeroplane just cos the air steward told you to turn it off and you didn't?

This has happened with an ibook as well.

Can the clever boffs please advise?

[P]

Sounds like a hardware problem. My Mac will just eject the disc if it can't identify it. It will take some time to get there, but it will do it.

If all else fails, you can force eject the disc from the drive. The procedure is slightly different for different models, but for the iMac G3 and G5 that I have, there is a small button just inside the right side of the slot. You push it with a needle or a paperclip or something.

[ibook_steve]

Or reboot holding down the mouse button.

Steve

[Veltliner]

I had the same problem with CDs getting stuck in eternal turnaround.

I force quit iTunes, and then cold eject the disc.

I guess if a disc gets stuck, it is often a problem with the related software not responding.

[Pierre B.]

You can also try the Disk Utility to eject the disk. Sometimes it works when other methods do not.

[Pierre B.]

Another possibility is to launch the Terminal and try from there. There is a command line utility named hdiutil. Giving through the terminal the command "hdiutil eject disk1 -force" (without the quotes) should to the trick.