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icruise · May 24, 2006, 05:17 PM

I'm not sure if this belongs here or not, but I guess it's an OS issue more than anything. I put in a CD-R to burn a CD in iTunes on my iMac when I realized that I had selected "data cd" instead of "audio cd" in the prefs. So I immediately canceled the burn. But the CD would not come out. I tried hitting eject in iTunes and in Toast Titanium. I tried using the disk utility, but it didn't show up there. I tried typing commands in the terminal. (I was trying to avoid rebooting, since I had a lot of things open.) Finally, I decided to restart, so I turned off the power and then restarted with the left mouse button held down. No go. Then I tried to boot into open firmware and eject it from there. But it wouldn't boot into open firmware. I read that booting the machine in target disk mode might allow you to eject the disk, but it wouldn't go into target disk mode. And it also wouldn't boot. It would stay at the blank gray opening screen. Now I'm starting to get a little worried. But someone had said that just waiting might allow the computer to ignore the disc and boot, so I tried that. And 5-10 minutes later it did boot. Once it had booted, it struggled for another couple of minutes trying to read the CD and then gave up. But this time it showed up in the disc utility and I was able to eject the damn thing.

The moral of the story is, if nothing else works, just reboot and wait.

Tomchu · May 24, 2006, 06:21 PM

If I ever come across a stuck CD (unacceptable, by the way ... Apple should fix OS X's stubbornness when it comes to stuck CDs), I reboot and hold down the F12/Eject key before the Apple logo screen appears.

webcookie · May 24, 2006, 07:59 PM

I had the exact same thing happen to me once. I honestly don't remember how I got it out. I think after restarting and pushing F12 a lot it finally came out.

Big Mac · May 25, 2006, 03:28 AM

Originally Posted by Tomchu

If I ever come across a stuck CD (unacceptable, by the way ... Apple should fix OS X's stubbornness when it comes to stuck CDs), I reboot and hold down the F12/Eject key before the Apple logo screen appears.

Stranged, it's never happened to me, and I have been on OS X since 10.0.

oldmaccy · May 25, 2006, 08:29 AM

Remember holding down the (left as appropriate) mouse button during startup still ejects the optical drive!

An old one but a good one.

icruise · May 25, 2006, 11:50 AM

Originally Posted by oldmaccy

Remember holding down the (left as appropriate) mouse button during startup still ejects the optical drive!

An old one but a good one.

If you'll read my post, you'll see that I did that (and much more). Had absolutely no effect.

Stelex · Jun 3, 2006, 10:32 AM

Exactly same here (http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.php?t=297759), however I didn't wait, I used cardboard to get it out. Next time I might just leave it and have a cuppa meanwhile

analogika · Jun 4, 2006, 06:37 AM

Originally Posted by Icruise

Then I tried to boot into open firmware and eject it from there. But it wouldn't boot into open firmware.

This is disturbing. Unless you have an open firmware password set?

sushiism · Jun 5, 2006, 07:50 AM

Had it happen once or twice with mangled up cds, rebooting and holding down the mouse has solved the lot of them though

Horsepoo!!! · Jun 5, 2006, 09:11 AM

This has happened to me a few times...when my combo drive was well on it's way to death (I also had various problems like DVDs hanging halfway through the movie and CDs that would mount but I couldn't copy anything from them onto the HD.) After replacing it with a new DVD burner, I've never had one single stuck CD/DVD.

pendragon · Jun 5, 2006, 09:17 AM

Sometimes this works:

1. In the Finder Sidebar-
2. There should be an icon of the stuck CD/DVD, with a Burn button next to it
3. Click on the Burn button
4. When the burn dialog appears, do not click Burn, but click on the big Eject button on the left side of the dialog window.

(from "OS X Killer Tips" by Scott Kelby)

icruise · Jun 5, 2006, 12:46 PM

Originally Posted by analogika

This is disturbing. Unless you have an open firmware password set?

No I did not. For some reason the computer seemed to be dead set on trying to read that CD. I don't understand it myself.

Originally Posted by pendragon

Sometimes this works:

1. In the Finder Sidebar-
2. There should be an icon of the stuck CD/DVD, with a Burn button next to it
3. Click on the Burn button
4. When the burn dialog appears, do not click Burn, but click on the big Eject button on the left side of the dialog window.

(from "OS X Killer Tips" by Scott Kelby)

The problem was that the CD didn't show up in the Finder (or any other program) so that wouldn't work. One thing I've learned from this is to never try and stop a burn halfway through.

kick52 · Jun 5, 2006, 03:46 PM

isnt there a force eject on imacs?

since you didnt state what imac you have:
imac g3: force eject on cd drive
imac g4: force eject somwhere
imac g5: open firmware - eject cd - mac-boot
imac intel: ???

oh sorry, just read you couldnt get into of.
^ignore^

pendragon · Jun 5, 2006, 04:38 PM

Thanks for posting all those tips/suggestions that do not work. Seriously. Knowing what may work is nice, but knowing what doesn't work can often be a real time saver, e.g. prompt one on to ways that will work.

Apfhex · Jun 5, 2006, 06:45 PM

I've had bad CDs get stuck where OS X has a lot of trouble reading them causing things to lock up. Restarting holding down the mouse button usually works.

If all else fails I'm pretty sure all optical drives, including slot loading, have a physical eject mechanism somewhere if you poke around enough with a bent paper clip. I've had to do that on occasion.

icruise · Jun 5, 2006, 07:32 PM

You would think so, but the iMac Core Duo does not appear to have a physical eject mechanism. At least I couldn't see one, and I didn't want to go poking blindly around inside the drive with a paper clip. Does anyone know for sure whether it has one or not?

Salty · Jun 6, 2006, 04:33 AM

This thread has reinvigorated me to get my PowerBook fixed. The losers at both Mac places I went to get it repaired said that because my PB is dented they can't fix it under apple care. Anyway, I'm going to phone up Apple and make sure it gets done free of charge, since drive flat out isn't even recognized by the system, meanwhile it was working long after the dent as made so it's not as if that caused the problem, the drive simply failed.
Sigh... this is frustrating!