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Stubborn SuperDrives
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I absolutely love the SuperDrive in Macbook Pro. I don’t know why all laptops don’t use a slot loading optical drive. It is definitely better than a tray. Occasionally, the SuperDrive can be a little finicky. One of the things that it has a tendency to do is be greedy with CDs or DVDs. It will hold on to them and will not let you eject them. This can be very frustrating. Especially when you are looking in that tiny slot with a flashlight and wondering how in the world you’re going to get that DVD out of there. Have no fear, there are ways to make that greedy Macbook Pro release your favorite CD or DVD.
Make Sure Your Macbook Has Control
If you are using virtual software such as VMWare Fusion, make sure that you don’t have a virtual machine open and running. Sometimes the VM will actually have control of the SuperDrive. If this is the case, you can try ejecting from within your virtual machine or you can disconnect the CD/DVD drive from the virtual machine and your MacBook should regain control allowing you to eject the disc using the eject button.
Force Eject From The Terminal
Open up a terminal window
Type the following
drutil tray eject
Force Eject Using Disk Utility
Open up the Disk Utility by navigating to Applications->Utilities->Disk Utility
You should see the SuperDrive listed in the left hand pane underneath your hard drive.
Select it, and then click “Eject” in the toolbar
Reboot Method 1
Reboot your MacBook while holding the eject button down.
Reboot Method 2
Reboot your MacBook while holding down the trackpad
Magic Method
This is the weirdest method of them all, but it has worked for people. Usually when they get so frustrated they just walk away from their MacBook and then come back 🙂
Simply reboot your MacBook and let it sit for about 10-15 minutes. Then try to eject the disc using the “Eject” button.
Disruptive Method
Use this method at your own risk and usually as a last resort. The theory behind it is that as long as the disc is spinning, it’s not going to eject.
Reboot your MacBook Pro while holding down the trackpad. Using a thin piece of cardboard or folded paper, slide the paper in the slot towards the left hand side. The goal is to slip the paper above the disc and apply just enough pressure to stop the disc from spinning. I would NOT recommend trying this with a paper clip or other piece of metal. Paper will be less likely to cause any damage to the disc.
So there you have it. Most of the time, using the Disk Utility or Terminal will work, but you may have to resort to some of the other methods depending on how stubborn the disc is!
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Thank you for these suggestions. I tried the method where I went to the utility drive and pressed “eject”. It didn’t work the first time. Then my husband suggested that I try again but hold my MBP sideways to see if gravity could aid the process. It worked! Again, thank you. The APPLE store here is always packed and I didn’t want to part with my new MBP!
Glad you were finally able to get it out of there! I know how frustrating that can be!
OMG ! thank you so much ! I thought my drive was broken as it did not respond to anything.
Parallels desktop took control over it. Disabled in parallels and everything went back to normal, nice and smooth !!
THANK YOU AGAIN =)
I was pleasantly surprised when your “Disruptive Method” (i.e. inserting a piece of paper) worked.
Lol! Yeah, sometimes the weirdest methods work!