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How To Create ISO Files From Discs On Windows, Mac, and Linux

ISO files are disc images that allow physical discs to be converted into virtual discs. The document outlines how to create ISO files from discs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. On Windows, InfraRecorder is recommended to create ISO files. On Mac, Disk Utility can be used to create a .cdr file which can then be converted to an ISO file using Terminal. On Linux, either graphical disc burning utilities or the dd terminal command can be used to create ISO files.

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Rodrigo Amigo
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33 views

How To Create ISO Files From Discs On Windows, Mac, and Linux

ISO files are disc images that allow physical discs to be converted into virtual discs. The document outlines how to create ISO files from discs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. On Windows, InfraRecorder is recommended to create ISO files. On Mac, Disk Utility can be used to create a .cdr file which can then be converted to an ISO file using Terminal. On Linux, either graphical disc burning utilities or the dd terminal command can be used to create ISO files.

Uploaded by

Rodrigo Amigo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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How to Create ISO Files From Discs on Windows, Mac, and Linux 1/4/17, 1'01 PM

How to Create ISO Files From Discs


on Windows, Mac, and Linux

ISO files are disc images — complete images of a CD or DVD bundled in a


single file. This file can then be “mounted” and made available as a virtual CD
or DVD, allowing you to convert physical discs to virtual ones.

This is particularly useful if you want to use old game or software discs on a
modern computer that doesn’t have a disc drive. Note that some DRM copy
protection schemes won’t work with ISO files unless you jump through
additional hoops.

Windows

Windows doesn’t have a built-in way to easily create ISO files, although
modern versions of Windows — Windows 8, 8.1, and 10 — can all natively
mount ISO files without any additional software.

To actually create an ISO file from your own physical disc, you’ll need to get a
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How to Create ISO Files From Discs on Windows, Mac, and Linux 1/4/17, 1'01 PM

third-party program that can do so. There are many, many tools for this —
and many of them are packed with junkware. Beware!

InfraRecorder does a fine job of this and is free, open-source software that
doesn’t include junkware. Insert a disc, click the “Read Disc” button, and
select a source drive to read from and destination ISO file to create.

And, as usual when downloading Windows freeware, Ninite is a safe place to


get a variety of other tools for doing this, such as ImgBurn and CDBurnerXP.
Some of these programs — like ImgBurn — do include junkware in their
installers if you get them from elsewhere.

Mac OS X

On a Mac, you can use Disk Utility to create images of discs. To open it, press
Command+Space to open the Spotlight search box, type “Disk Utility”, and
press Enter.

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Insert a disc, click the File menu, and point to New > Disc Image from
[Device]. Select “DVD/CD master” as the format and leave encryption
disabled. Mac OS X will create a .cdr file from the disc. On a Mac, this is
practically just as good as an ISO file. You can “mount” it from within
the Disk Utility application by clicking File > Open Disk Image.

Assuming you just want to use the .cdr file on a Mac, you can leave it as a .cdr
file. But, if you want to convert it to an ISO file to use on other operating
systems, you can do it with a Terminal command. Open a Terminal window
and run the following command:

hdiutil convert /home/username/original.cdr -format UDTO -o


/home/username/destination.iso

Replace “/home/username/original.cdr” with the path to the CDR file and


“/home/username/destination.iso” with a path for the ISO file you want to
create.

You may also be able to just rename the .cdr file to an .iso file in many cases,
although this isn’t always guaranteed to work.

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Linux

On Linux, you can do this from the terminal or with a disc-burning utility
your Linux distribution may include. For example, Ubuntu uses the Brasero
disc-burning utility. Open the Brasero Disc Burner, click “Disc Copy,” and
you can choose to copy an inserted disc to an “Image File.” Other Linux
distributions and desktops may include other, similar tools. Look for a
CD/DVD-related utility and it should have an option to copy a disc to an ISO
disc image file.

Creating an ISO file from the terminal is as simple as running the below
command;

sudo dd if=/dev/cdrom of=/home/username/image.iso

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Replace “/dev/cdrom” with the path to your CD drive — for example, it may
be “/dev/dvd” instead — and “/home/username/cd.iso” with the path to the
ISO file you want to create.

Resulting disc images can be mounted with the “mount” command in a


terminal or with graphical tools that basically just provide a prettier interface
over the mount command.

Once you have your ISO files, you can copy them to a computer’s hard drive,
store them on a USB drive, or make them available on the network. Any
computer without a disc drive can read them and use them as a virtual disc.

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