Mac Mini Manual Eject

Turn Off your Mac. Immediately hold down the left mouse button, then press the power button to restart the Mac. Keep the left mouse button held down until the CD ejects from the drive. That's it:) Now you can relax and remove the thoughts of heaving your Mac out of an open window, which I considered before researching the problem.

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Optical drives typically include a small pinhole large enough to insert a paper clip end to manually eject a stubborn disc. Since the Mac Mini doesn't include this feature, you must use other methods to clear your optical bay. Manually ejecting a disc using one of the supported methods outlined by Apple ensures you retrieve the disk without damaging your company's drive. If you still can't remove the disk after attempting all of the options available for ejecting the disk, you should take your Mac Mini to the Apple Retail Store or an experienced computer technician for help to prevent damaging the optical drive.

1.

Remove any items sitting on top of your Mac Mini. Select the 'Disc' icon and chose the 'File' menu and then click 'Eject.' Items placed on top of your computer may prevent the disc from being ejected.

2.

Quit any applications currently using the disc. Then hold down the 'Eject' key or press 'F12' to eject the disc.

3.

Click the Apple menu, select the option to 'Log Out' and then log back in to your account. Attempt to eject the disc again by dragging the disc icon to the Trash.

4.

Select the Apple menu, choose 'Restart' and hold down the mouse button while the computer restarts. The disc should be ejected before your computer boots the operating system.

Warning

  • Information in this article applies to Mac OS X Mountain Lion and the Mid-2010 Mac Mini. It may vary slightly or significantly with other versions or products.

References (3)

About the Author

Avery Martin holds a Bachelor of Music in opera performance and a Bachelor of Arts in East Asian studies. As a professional writer, she has written for Education.com, Samsung and IBM. Martin contributed English translations for a collection of Japanese poems by Misuzu Kaneko. She has worked as an educator in Japan, and she runs a private voice studio out of her home. She writes about education, music and travel.

Photo Credits

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While Apple has slowly phased out optical drives from it’s Mac lineup over the years, you might still have a MacBook or desktop Mac with a disc drive. You might also have an external solution with a CD/DVD/Blu-ray drive.

At some point, there’s a chance that a CD, DVD or Blu-Ray disc is going to get stuck in your Mac or external optical drive. Fortunately, there are some simple steps that can be taken to force eject a disc that’s stuck.

Eject

First, try one of these three methods:

  • Holding down the eject key
  • Drag the disc icon to your Mac’s trash bin
  • Right click on the disc icon and select eject
  • Press Command > E

Next, try this method:

  • Launch the terminal app and use the following command and then press enter: /usr/bin/drutil eject

If all else fails, you can try these methods:

Mac Mini Manual Eject Drive

  • Boot your Mac into single-user Mode. At the prompt enter /usr/bin/drutil eject. To restart the computer enter “reboot” at the prompt without the quotation marks.
  • Hold down your trackpad button (or your left mouse button) and restart your Mac. Hold the button down until the desktop appears. This will trigger the system to eject your disc before OS X begins loading.
  • Shut down the Mac and restart it, then let it sit for 15 minutes. After a short amount of time, the disc may eject itself.

If your disc is still stuck, feel free to contact OWC’s customer support team for further assistance. And if you’re looking to bring optical capabilities back to your workflow, check out OWC’s lineup of optical solutions.

Mac Mini Manual Eject Tool

Find more macOS tips and Quick Answers at the Rocket Yard!