Mouse (or Trackpad) Button: Quick Eject
This is the third post in a short series about what you can do with key combinations during startup. But this won’t be a just long list of every key combination available, we’ll also cover why and how to use them. See the the other articles to learn about Option Booting and Safe Booting.
Mouse or Trackpad Button
Holding down your mouse button or trackpad button during startup is one of the most basic startup tools for your Mac, which also makes it one of the most applicable. While some the other tools we’ve discussed in this series are more useful when troubleshooting a problematic Mac, holding down the mouse or trackpad button can solve one of life’s little frustrations that happens much more frequently: a CD or DVD that won’t eject.
When to Use it
You have probably experienced a stuck disc at some point. The cause is often unknowable, but when you try to eject it from your Mac it won’t come out. Sometimes it will disappear from the Desktop and not eject, other times it may give you an esoteric error message about a disc in use.
How to Use It
It’s just as easy as it sounds, restart your Mac and hold down your mouse button or trackpad button and wait for the disc to eject as your Mac boots up. In most cases the disc will pop right out. However, if the cause of your stuck disc is hardware–that is, your Optical Drive has failed–this will not work and you should take your Mac to an Authorized Service Provider for further help.
We promised last week that is would be less involved, and as you can see, it’s a quick and easy startup option. Next week, we’ll talk about something for the more dauntless among you: Verbose Mode.