Here are the steps I usually take in trying to eject a CD or DVD-in order from least likely to damage the disc and/or my Mac, to most likely.

Hold the key and boot into USB 3.

Make bootable USB media with Arch ISO image ( wiki) 2. Often a dialog pops up and says 'the disc is in use' (but it doesn't specify what application is using it!), or worse, there is no error-the disc just won't come out. ArchLinux Installation With OS X on Macbook Air (Dual Boot) Procedure 1. Sometimes, I just want to get a dratted disc out of the computer, but dragging it to the trash, or pressing the 'Eject' key won't work. I'm given a mini CD (business card size) or DVD (this rarely happens anymore).A CD/DVD disc is warped or really thick (like most discs with homemade labels).Most of the time, I'm extremely happy with Apple's decision to make all their physical media (CD/DVD) drives slot-loading, as it means there's one less part to accidentally break off my Mac, and it just looks so darn pretty! But every now and then, I have a hellish experience with the drive.

Arch linux macbook air internet