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GQ-08: How to Create an ISO Image From a CD

How do I make an ISO image of a data CD?
here's two ways you can do it from the command line...
1. Use the "dd" command.

• a. Pop the CD into your CD-ROM/DVD/CD-RW drive
• b. then run the command...
  
  CODE
  dd if=<device> of=cdimage.iso
  
  <device> will be your CD-ROM device. This should be "/dev/hdc" for a DVD-ROM or CD-ROM drive, and "/dev/sr1" or "/dev/sg1" for a CD-RW device.

• c. Now you'll have an iso image of the CD you put in your drive.

Now sometimes, "dd" just won't work. It'll end with a really small file that obviously isn't the image. So, this is where mkisofs comes in handy.

2. Use the "mkisofs" command.

• a. Pop the CD into your CD drive, and make sure it's mounted. Also make sure you know the mount point. This is usually "/mnt/cdrom". Just type "mount" to look at all mounted devices.
• b. Then run the command...
  
  CODE
  mkisofs -o cd.iso -lR /mnt/cdrom

• c. Now you'll have an iso cd image of the mounted CD

On another note, you could also create an ISO image from a group of files and/or folders in a directory using the mkisofs command. Just substitute the CD mount point with the dir of the files you want to make the image out of.
For example, if you want to make an image out of the files and folders included in the dir "/home/bob/stuff/" ...



You'll then have an ISO image "stuff.iso" which contains the files from that directory. You could then burn using cdrecord or your favorite GUI cd burning app.



Note that if you need to make an image of a bootable cd use the dd method. mkisofs won't retain the bootable information.