Hot to open a Mac CD tray?

October 16, 2007 8:36 PM

Embarrassing-lack-of-computer-knowledge-question: So I'm using a new-fangled Mac. My Mac at home is simple: you push a button and the CD tray comes out. There is no button on this Mac. If I had the time, I would eventually find out how to do this, but I'm rushed today and quickly need to burn a CD. How do I open the tray?
posted by lazy robot to computers & internet (18 comments total)

Oops, miss-spelt "how" on my abbreviated question......yes, very rushed today.
posted by lazy robot at 8:37 PM on October 16, 2007

try: F12
(thats what works on my mac, the keyboard of which lacks the standard Mac cd eject key)
posted by Chrischris at 8:38 PM on October 16, 2007

Usually there is a button on the keyboard... top right on mine, with a little up-pointing triangle above a little line. Push this, maybe hold it for a few seconds. You'll see the same glyph on your screen and the CD tray will come out. Unless you have some different sort of Mac, but the last few I had worked that way.
posted by jessamyn at 8:38 PM on October 16, 2007

Are you sure there's a tray? A lot of Macs just have a slit. You slide your CD in and the computer eats it. To eject, drag the image of the DC from your desktop to the trash can.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 8:40 PM on October 16, 2007

um, how new-fangled? if it's a laptop, there is no tray. you just stick a cd into a slot.
posted by timory at 8:40 PM on October 16, 2007

er, CD
posted by croutonsupafreak at 8:40 PM on October 16, 2007

Thanks, folks, you saved my bacon!
posted by lazy robot at 8:40 PM on October 16, 2007

What type of Mac? Is it a Mac Pro tower, or a flat-panel iMac, or something else?
posted by mbrubeck at 8:43 PM on October 16, 2007

This is definitely the kind of problem that I would have considered posting anonymously.

All in good fun, of course. I'm just jealous of you and your multiple-Macness.
posted by DMan at 8:54 PM on October 16, 2007

Does dragging the CD icon on the desktop to the trash still work?

//Memories...
posted by JakeLL at 9:59 PM on October 16, 2007

It works if you have a CD in already. If the tray is empty, there's no icon to drag.
posted by smackfu at 10:14 PM on October 16, 2007

It's always struck me as odd that a company as design-centric as Apple would ignore a perfectly reasonable UI standard (the button is on or next to the tray it opens, which your hand needs to be near anyway to load/remove the disc) in favor of a nonstandard placement that puts it in a new and arbitrary location, totally disconnected from the thing it controls.

Don't feel bad, it took me a while to figure out too.
posted by contraption at 11:43 PM on October 16, 2007

Contraption:
"It's always struck me as odd that a company as design-centric as Apple would ignore a perfectly reasonable UI standard (the button is on or next to the tray it opens, which your hand needs to be near anyway to load/remove the disc) in favor of a nonstandard placement that puts it in a new and arbitrary location, totally disconnected from the thing it controls. Don't feel bad, it took me a while to figure out too."

I've said the exact same thing to my Mac crazy friends, who always reply to me "You're over thinking it.. the eject button is on the keyboard.".... On the KEYBOARD?.. how is that common sense ? every other consumer device in the world has a small eject button on the tray (or very near the tray edge)... wtf Apple ?
posted by jmnugent at 3:13 AM on October 17, 2007

Launch itunes, press Apple+E (regardless of whether theres a disc in your drive).

Worst...UI annoyance...EVAR.
posted by softlord at 5:33 AM on October 17, 2007

To jump on this bandwagon: what if you're using a Windows keyboard? I've mapped a button to open the drive, but it's not the same (e.g., CMD + that button doesn't put the machine to sleep like the real eject button does). If you're ever really stuck, I did dig this up. From the command line:

drutil tray eject
drutil tray close
posted by yerfatma at 7:11 AM on October 17, 2007

I believe what yerfatama is talking about can also be achieved by running the Disk Utility program, located in the Applications/Utilities folder. Select the disc from the left pane, and click eject. I usually avoid the command line if I can.

This is most often helpful when there's a disc in the drive, but no icon on the desktop.
posted by kpmcguire at 1:13 PM on October 17, 2007

I use Windows keyboards with all my Macs, and holding F12 down for a couple of seconds works on all of them. (Tapping F12 launches the Dashboard.) I never knew that CMD+Eject put the machine to sleep, so I haven't missed it.
posted by hades at 12:00 AM on October 21, 2007

For mouse users: Go to Your HD/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/Eject.menu. That will put a menu extra on the right side of your "white menu" where you can eject your SuperDrive.
posted by yerfatma at 6:07 AM on November 5, 2007