Home > Tech, Video > Video: How To Remove Stuck CD From iMac / Slot Loading Optical Drive

Video: How To Remove Stuck CD From iMac / Slot Loading Optical Drive

Not too long ago I read this tip on MacOSXHints.com. It talks about using a 3.5″ floppy disk to remove a stuck CD from a slot-loading optical drive. Since I couldn’t find a 3.5″ floppy, I got an idea after reading ericdsa’s comment.

Instead of a CD or DVD as ericdsa suggested, I used two credit cards (well, the same size, shape, and material as credit cards); one wedged below the stuck cd or dvd, one wedged above the stuck cd, applied tension, and voila!

Popularity: 21% [?]

  1. lukechip
    October 28th, 2008 at 04:01 | #1

    You saved me !

    Thanks – worked just as you said.

  2. October 29th, 2008 at 09:22 | #2

    glad it helped lukechip!

  3. chris the mac techie
    May 11th, 2009 at 04:22 | #3

    Worked awesome

  4. stadybug
    November 3rd, 2009 at 18:59 | #4

    This just worked on my PS3 – I had 3 disks stuck from my toddler shoving them inside! THANK YOU!!!!!

  5. Arnab Mukherjee
    March 15th, 2010 at 04:00 | #5

    Thanks. It worked for me great (within just 1 min)

  6. March 18th, 2010 at 06:59 | #6

    i have a: dell studio xps 16 (1640)
    one of my dvd’s is stuck and it dont’t work with the cards, please help?

  7. Roger Dodger
    April 14th, 2010 at 20:01 | #7

    Looks like a good method, but my stuck CD would retract as soon as it hit something in its ejection path.

    Have an old MacBook Pro which had a cheap music CD with a paper label that would not slide out far enough to escape the intake sensor (or whatever it is called). When we tried to eject the disk, the disk would obviously hit something on the way out and then immediately get drawn back into the drive. Figured the CD probably warped as it warmed up in use, but I didn’t have time to wait for the computer to cool off. Put the MBP to sleep and stuck it in the refrigerator for 20 minutes and then hit the eject key. The CD popped right out!

  1. No trackbacks yet.