How to eject a CD

2006-03-17 21:43:00 -08:00

I posted this to IOMUG‘s mailing list on 2004-04-05. I’ve HTMLized it, added Unicode, and added Tiger info.


Here are all the ways to do it using Apple software (the OS and the programs that come with it). Note that all the same methods work for DVDs as well, so, if you have a DVD drive, you can read “CD/DVD” wherever you see “CD”. Unless otherwise noted, these all take place in Finder.

These require a CD in the drive.

  • Hold down the mouse button at startup.
  • Select the volume and press ⌘E, or choose Eject from the File or Special menu.
  • Drag the volume to the Trash (on Mac OS X, the Trash icon will change to an ⏏ icon).
  • Mac OS only: Select the volume and press ⌘Y, or choose Put Away from the File menu. This is the only way to unmount a server in Mac OS.
  • Mac OS 7.5 and later only: In the Control Strip, choose Eject from the Audio CD module (the one with a CD icon).
  • Mac OS 8 and later only: Right-click on the volume and click Eject.
  • Mac OS X only: Select the volume and click the ⏏/Eject button on the toolbar.
  • Panther only: Select the volume and click the ⏏ button in the sidebar. (Works in Navigation Services dialogs, too.)
  • Mac OS X only: From Disk Utility, select the volume and click the ⏏/Eject button on the toolbar.
  • Mac OS X only: From Disk Utility, select the volume and choose “Eject” from the File menu.
  • Mac OS X only: Press the Eject key on the keyboard. (Thanks, Andrew Wellington! Added 2006-03-18.)
  • Old Mac OS X only: From Terminal, type “disktool -e device”. (Thanks to Sören Nils “chucker” Kuklau for telling me about this one.)
  • Mac OS X only: From Terminal, type “diskutil eject device”. device is one of /dev/diskN”, “diskN”, or “/Volumes/Name”. Use diskutil list to determine an appropriate value of N. (Thanks to Graham Booker for reminding me of diskutil.)

These do not require a CD in the drive if you have a tray-loading drive. In this case, the tray will open so you can put in a CD.

  • From Open Firmware, type “eject cd”. (Note: you can’t substitute “dvd” here. It must be “eject cd”, even if you have a DVD drive.)
  • Burners only: from Terminal, type “drutil tray eject -drive N”, where N is the number of your drive. You can use “drutil list” to determine the value of N.
  • Burners only: from Terminal, type “drutil eject -drive N”.
  • Press F12, or on *Books, press fn-F12. On Mac OS 9, you may need to add the ⌥ key, depending on your keyboard settings.
  • Mac OS X only: with the Eject MenuExtra enabled, choose “Eject ‘Volume Name’” or “Open/Close CD-ROM Drive” from the ⏏ menu.
  • In iTunes, click ⏏ on the iTunes window.
  • In iTunes, choose “Eject Disc” from the Controls menu.
  • In DVD Player, click ⏏ on the controller.
  • In DVD Player, choose “Eject” from the Controls menu. (May vary by version. What I said is true of 4.0, i.e. Panther’s DVD Player, and 4.6, i.e. Tiger’s DVD Player.)

* Mac OS is the OS before Mac OS X. The latest version of Mac OS is 9.2.2.

** You can enable this MenuExtra by opening /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/Eject.menu.

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