I always reboot into open firmware (reboot holding down CMD + O + F) and then at the prompt type “eject cd” without quotes and that does the trick, though I have an iMac not a Mac Pro

it’s easier than that. Assuming no open files, just run this in Terminal:

no sudo needed.

it’s easier than that. Assuming no open files, just run this in Terminal:

drutil tray eject 
no sudo needed.

Thanks John, this little tidbit rocks!

If you very carefully, but rather firmly slap the right-hand upper part of the Mac Pro,almost over the end-right-side of the uppde optical door, then the upper tray will slide out. Ditto for the lower optical door. One caveat. That metal with all the holes is weak, because of the holes. I’ve developed a bit of a bowing-inwards, so be careful. If you take out the optical tray completely, you could reach with fingers or tools to “bang out the “bowing-in”.

Good luck,

and be careful.

As John Welch mentions, terminal is your best software-based approach.

should eject anything in the optical drive, tray or slot, provided the drive can physically eject it.

Still won’t come out?  You <b>can/<b> safely open the Mac while it’s off, and pull optical drive assembly out without any tools.  After that, insert ye olde bent paper clip into the hole on the front of the now-exposed drive, and the tray is pushed out. It’s unfortunate that the manual eject hole has been covered up on Macs for the last ten years, but for those drives it’s always been there. It’s a simple operation and your last resort with tray-load drives.

If you have a slot-load drive instead?  Don’t even think about a paper clip or cardboard.  Take that in for service work.

Toast.

Seriously, for a software way of doing it for those who have an aversion to Terminal, Toast Titanium works wonder.

It sends the same command ( drutil tray eject ) that Terminal does, except through an easy-less queasy interface.

My DVD-RW drive has been acting up the past few years where if I leave the tray closed I cannot open it until about the 20th try with the Eject button on the keyboard. I open Toast and use “Eject” from the Recorder menu, and it opens right up no problem.

same happened to me once with a PC , so i simply took a sledge-hammer to it and kept hitting until all parts were sufficiently split open.
Once i lifted all the smashed bits out of the way, lo-and-behold, the DVD was left sitting there on the ground. Success !!
Unfortunately, its a once-off fix only…..

same happened to me once with a PC , so i simply took a sledge-hammer to it and kept hitting until all parts were sufficiently split open… Unfortunately, its a once-off fix only…

Sorry to hear about your PC, man. My friend Lauren can help you find a good replacement, cheap.

I’ve only had an issue with a stuck CD once with my MacBook Pro and it was after a failed burn. I just went straight to Disk Utility and was able to eject it. But I like that option with the Terminal. I’ll try it.

and for those command-line Terminal-averse of us, when all keyboard shortcuts and straightened paperclips fail, the iTunes’ triangular “Eject Disk” button has faithfully always done the trick.