Standard audio CD stuck and not recognized inside of Mac Mini

Question

I put a standard CD into the Mac Mini and now it does not show up on the desktop or iTunes or is acknowledged in any way. So, I cannot eject it. Just before this I tried to insert another CD and it would not take it in at all. The CD that is now stuck inside the Mac Mini worked just fine on the same computer earlier in the day.
I have restarted, shut down and restarted, all to no avail. I cannot tell if the CD spins up at startup or not. I've tried a few different backdoor ways to eject media, but since the computer not even recognizing it has a CD inside there is, in theory, nothing to eject.
This is the current gen Mac Mini. I've been ripping a lot of CDs lately and this computer is a dedicated music server.
Thanks for any help.

Answer 1

Hello Andrew,
I have posted the following in the MacBook Pro section, and I've received some replies from users that it worked for them:
If the disk is not readable at this point, then it sounds like the disk is probably stuck against the bezel of your computer (like it missed the slot that it's supposed to slide out of).
If you are not into taking risks, then get it serviced now. Removing a stuck disk should be covered under warranty (as well as checking the alignment of the drive).
Otherwise, if you are adventurous, then keep reading.
If the disk does not eject when you start up holding down the mouse button during startup, then it may be physically stuck.
One example could be if the drive and the slot in the computer's case are slightly out of alignment.
In that situation, the drive would have partially ejected the CD, and therefore it would no-longer be readable. So, the computer will not acknowledge that there is still a disk in the drive.
But, if the disk is jammed against the edge of the case, then it may not be able to eject fully.
There are methods to try and un-stick a CD that is stuck because of an alignment problem. But, neither is really 100% safe to try.
1) You could try and slide something extremely thin between the CD and the drive's slit on the case to help guide it out. But, you risk damaging something if you don't do it just right. You could also make it worse.
2) You could take a credit-card or another CD and try to re-seat the disk fully in the drive. The idea here is that if it is partially ejected, then this might help to fully seat the CD back into the regular location that it sits in when being read. This might enable the computer to read the CD again, and possibly eject it once it acknowledges that the CD is present. But, again this method could potentially cause further damage.
My concern with the second option, is that you might miss the CD and push on something else. Likewise, if you exert too much pressure, you could force the disk into something further inside the drive. And, another concern is that if the drive does grab the CD and try to spin it before you release pressure, then you could cause another problem.
Basically, these are only thrown out there for the truly adventurous. If that isn't you, then don't do anything outside of software controls and keyboard / mouse controls to eject the disk.
The risk of trying one of the physical methods is that you might void a warranty that would otherwise have replaced the drive for you.
Anyway, I hope my thoughts and ideas are helpful. Let me know if anything works for you.