How To Create CD And DVD Images With dd

dd, disk dump is an easy to use Unix and Linux tool, for creating backups, copying files, formating filesystems, creating ISO images , etc.

In this article I will show you how to create a CD or DVD ISO image, easily from the terminal.

dd syntax: dd if=input_file of=output_file

First, make sure that the cd and dvd are not mounted. Unmount them if necessary.

So, make CD image with dd:

# dd if=/dev/cdrom of=~/cd.iso

Make DVD image with dd:

# dd if=/dev/dvd of=~/cd.iso

Because I have a single S-ATA cd/dvd ROM, my system simlinked both /dev/cdrom and /dev/dvd to /dev/sr0 . (/dev/sr0 is the first s-ata rom)

$ ls -l /dev/{dvd,cdrom} lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 2012-08-15 07:50 /dev/cdrom -> sr0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 2012-08-15 07:50 /dev/dvd -> sr0

So, I can also use this command for creating CD and DVD images:

# dd if=/dev/sr0 of=~/cd.iso

dd is a generical Unix command, so it can be used on most of the Unix and Linux Systems.