Earlier this evening I inserted a blank DVD into my MacBook Pro wanting to burn some files. However, OS X never recognised the disc, nothing on the desktop, nothing in the Finder, not even in the Disk Utility. I pressed the Eject button, pressed and held F12 for a few seconds, but the disk was stuck.
I had a DVD stuck once before, even though recognised by the system, and I got it out after tilting the computer 45 degrees forward. But this time, whatever I did there was no eject mechanism sound at all, just a very quiet sound of the disk spinning up and slowing down every few seconds.
So I decided to use good old trick of holding down the mouse button while booting the computer up. Rebooted, held the trackpad button down – but nothing. Even more interesting is that the computer wouldn’t start up at all.
The only thing I hear, following the Apple sound, is the disk spinning, possibly trying to read the boot sector and then slowing down. And this gets repeated forever. The screen stays grey, no Apple logo, nothing.
OK, another try, held down Cmd-Option-P-R, then held down D and finally held down even C while booting, but exactly same result – disk spins up and slows down few times, grey screen and a high blood pressure.
I thought, the computer is trying to boot from the optical drive but is unable to read the disc hence going into the endless loop. So I used a little trick, I inserted a small piece of thin battery pack cardboard just above the disc and twisted it (the cardboard) a little so the disk can’t spin when starting up. I turned the computer on and held down the trackpad button.
I could hear the sound of the optical drive inside, not the spinning sound but rather sound of something moving ever so slightly. I heard it only two times and the third sound was a well known one – the offending DVD came out.
The computer then happily booted the OS X. I looked up the disc very carefully and there were no faults with it at all, no bends, no scratches or cracks, just a perfect DVD.
Get 5 GB of free cloud storage with a a bonus 500 MB if you register via SilverMac, so you can safely back-up, share and synchronise your documents, photos, videos, music…
Oh, there is one more thing … Since 2006 this page was visited about 336.000 times (as of Dec 2011) and counting. Say 10% of visitors had a problem with their DVD drive. That’s 33.600 computers. Each of those would have paid at least $100 to Apple service centres to get their DVD out, and in some cases much more to replace the DVD / Super drive. This means Silvermac has saved you about $3.36 million, or maybe even much more.
However, the total for all donations to Silvermac is $140. That’s in five years. So once your disk pops out show your appreciation and make your donation here. A cup of coffee would be just fine. You can use either your PayPal account or your credit card and it’s much easier that getting that DVD out.
It took me a while to get it.. You have to hold the card in the slot, stop the DVD from spinning.. It will make funny noises and such, BUT you have to hold it in there for almost a minute while your pushing the eject button.. So the key is to wait.. And it works!
Totally worked & belive me, I tried everything else before reading your post! Thanks for saving my sanity!
the dvd popped out when I almost wanted to give up! hooray, your trick works on my ibook. thank a million for sharing the post!
Works perfectly!
I’ve tried EVERYTHING, and this will not work for me either. :’(
Thank you. I am a teacher and this was my school computer. I tried everything! This was the only thing that worked.
Thanks a million got it out first time . much appreciated
OMG u are a life saver!! It worked the first time!! U are god!
I have had a blank DVD in my MacBook Pro for more than a month. Took you’re advice and just held down the eject button with a card wedged in there and it worked in seconds. Thank you so much!
Omg this worked! I thought my laptop was fried! You’re a life saver!
This worked perfectly – disc was stuck for over 6 months – had tried all methods including doubled sided tape etc. etc… Thank you very much !!! I’m in the Bahamas where apple support is extremely limited – so was very happy to find this solution without having to take it in.
Worked like a charm, i was about to trash the whole thing. Thank you!
I, like the others, _cannot believe this worked_! And I’m so grateful it did! Thank you!
this worked! Thank you! It saved me from wasting precious hours of figuring out what to do with the stuck cd inside the drive. Many thanks again!
Thanks a million for the tip. That was a life saving if I could say. Because of the piece of paper I used was thick when ejecting sound came the cd could not come out. So I pulled the paper out as soon as the ejecting sound started.
Thanks a billion for the tip….
I’m in Indonesia..so your tip really help me!
thank you!! … :)
Great!!! used your trick on my old apple powerpc and it worked. However, I kept holding the eject button on startup instead of the command options. Nevertheless, my thanks to you for ending my frustration. You saved me so much time and aggravation.
Thank you so much….took about 3 seconds to remove the DVD…..
OMG!!!!! I love you thank you! I was freaking out but that worked great!
Didn’t work. But this did: Rebooting Pram and trackpad held down (cmd opt p r and trackpad all held down at once) I needed my chin on trackpad as i didn’t have enough fingers
U just saved my life, my job and me from having to spend 3 hours doing the same job twice!
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!
U just saved me from having a panic attack and from spending three hours doing the same thing twice right before a holiday weekend!
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!
Worked like a charm!
I’m glad to know I’m not the only one struggling with this. This post saved my life as well. Thanks!
upside down with a business card at reboot worked after I tried many different things to get a dvd out. But the computer will still not start up…is that a fried hard drive, or should I (take the chance and) insert Snow Leopard in again?
Hold down mouse button AND eject button, dvd came out.
Thank you for this effective solution! We two had tried various tricks (including command-option-O-F) to no avail.
I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you.
You are awesome, works perfect, Loads and loads of thanks
It worked for me, too!
thank you so much! you saved my ass! :) had to restart my mbp though first, but it worked <3
IT WORKS On my mac, a doubled over piece of caardboard, hold down magic mouse pad for about a minute, listen for the drive sound to stop trying to read the drive, wait for it, EJECT SOUND!!!!!!!
GET THE DISC OUT.
Brilliant.
TIP: take the time to listen and wait for the drive sounds to change, You have to stop the disc from turinig, then listen to the drive doing its read check, read, check, read check… drive give up eject war dance.
bRILLIANT!
Very cool, thanks
Worked like a charm with the battery cardboard, thanks!
Out from the cd-drive came TWO dvd´s turned upside down. Have to thank my 2 year old son for that :)
Best
/ Martin
AMAZING. Only question is – should i risk trying to use the drive again????
Thanks a lot! It totally worked!
Awesome every other method failed, but this! Perfect Thank You!
This tip worked like a charm. I didn’t use a business card, however. I used a credit card and applied pressure in a downward motion then turned on the mac, waited for the start-up screen to appear and the disc ejected. Great, great tip!
YOU RRRRROOOOOOOOOOOCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!! YOU SAVED MY DAY!!!!!!!!!
This WORKED! I still have no idea what caused the problem. Will try a different disc and see if the same thing happens. Thank you!
I had a playable (DVD movie) stuck in the drive. Ok I tried most of the above and couldn’t get it to work. After 3 re-boots and just leaving the machine quiet for 5 mins (with the disk spinning and stopping every few seconds) and eventually a message came up ‘disk inserted -click here to read or do nothing’. Clicked ok and a menu (didn’t recognise it sorry!) came up asking if I wanted to write on the DVD – I just chose eject and it did. Problem solved.
Gracias!!!!! You are great. Thanks for sharing :)
You’re a lifesaver- like the others, your trick worked when all else failed and I’ll buy you a cup of coffee anytime!
YOU ARE THE MAN! IT worked! IT WORKED! OH THANK GOD IT WORKED>…I was freaking out….
OMG … You just saved me a complete freak out! THANK YOU…!
It works!!! Awesome! THANK YOU!
I held down just the eject key while booting and the DVD came out.
thanks so much dude.. I used a hotel brochure to do the trick!!
Thanks. Worked perfectly. I owe you one.
I tried this once and then went back to retry three or four other things. I finally came back to give your suggestion a second go and it worked in less than 10 seconds. Thanks to you I can return disk two of The Essential Dolly Parton collection back to my local library. (Yeah, I could think of 12 other CDs that I’d rather have stuck in there…)
Anyway, thanks a ton!