Welcome to our new weekly column, Terminal 101, where we'll show you how to do something new and simple with Apple's built-in command line application. You don't need any fancy software, or a knowledge of coding to do any of these. All you need is a keyboard to type 'em out! This week, we'll show you how to burn, erase, and eject stuck discs with Terminal. Read on!

Burning Discs with drutil

You can quickly and easily burn data discs sing the drutil command. Simply insert a blank disc into your Mac, open Terminal, and type the following command:

drutil burn 

Next, drag a single folder containing the files that you wish to burn into the Terminal window. You will see the path to the folder typed into Terminal for you. Press Enter to begin the burning process.

Terminal will notify you when it's finished with the operation.

Erasing Discs with drutil

If you have a rewritable disc (Usually labeled CD-RW, DVD-RW, etc.), then you can erase it through the Terminal. Type the following command to erase your disc:

drutil bulkerase quick

Using this command will perform a "quick" erase, but you can also use "full" instead to perform a full erase, which will take longer to complete. Press enter after entering the command to begin the erasing process. You will see the erase progress in the Terminal window.

Ejecting Discs with drutil

You can also eject discs right from the Terminal using the following command:

drutil eject 

This command can be helpful if you have a disc in your Mac that refuses to be ejected by issuing commands in the Finder.

Cory Bohon is a freelance technology writer, indie Mac and iOS developer, and amateur photographer. Follow this article's author, Cory Bohon on Twitter.