Maybe the laptop’s power died, maybe the drive in your desktop just quit responding, or maybe the door was just stuck or the disc came loose from a try just enough to jam things up. Regardless of what’s happening, or what you think might be happening, there’s no reason to rush out and replace the disc or drive just because the eject button doesn’t do what you expected it to do. Fortunately, one of the following two methods almost always does the trick to get the drive open:
How to Force Eject a Disc From Within the OS
We’ll start with the easiest way to get the drive open—skip the physical button on the outside and ask your operating system to force eject the disc. You can only try this if your computer has power and is working. Skip down to the next section if that’s not the case. Time Required: Forcing your CD, DVD, or BD drive to eject via your operating system’s commands is very easy and should only take a few seconds to try. Using a Mac? Similar to the method described above for Windows, find the disc icon, right-click it, and then choose Eject. Open Windows Explorer in earlier versions of Windows. You can do this by looking for that option when you right-click the Start button. If this doesn’t work (Windows, macOS, Linux, etc.), it’s time to get physical with it!
How to Open a CD/DVD/BD Drive…With a Paper Clip
It sounds strange, yes, but most computer optical drives, including external ones and those you’ll find in your game systems like Xbox and PlayStation, have a tiny pinhole that’s designed as a last resort method to get the drive bay open. Time & Tools Required: You’ll need a single, heavy-duty paper clip—not industrial sized, but not one of those flimsy plastic ones, either. The whole process will take less than a few minutes and is very easy. If these steps don’t work, or you find yourself using the paper clip trick often, it may be time to look at some other options…
No Luck? Here’s What to Do Next
At this point, there’s likely something physically wrong with the drive or another part of the computer. Here are some things to consider doing:
