Making an ISO (Image) File from a CD/DVD on a Mac for Free
There are several ways to make an ISO (or an image) file from a CD/DVD but here is a FREE and pretty simple way to do so on your Mac. Yes it means using the command line “Terminal” on your Mac, sometimes a little “unknown” for some people, but I assure you it is quite simple.
And for you that are familiar with VMware ESX/vSphere, the utility is actually the same as what you can use on that product. In case you need, here’s a simple How-To link to create an ISO on VMware on my work blog here:
http://lewanps.wordpress.com/2009/07/11/how-to-make-isos-from-the-esxvsphere-service-console/
How-To: Making an ISO on a Mac
1) First, open up Terminal which is found under Applications, Utilities.
2) Next we’ll need to get the drive number for your CD/DVD drive. You can do this by using the following command:
drutil status
The will product output like the following. Make a note of the Disk# that it shows. This is the disk # for your CD/DVD device:
Vendor Product Rev
MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857E ZA0E
Type: DVD-ROM Name: /dev/disk2 <– Look for the disk # here
Sessions: 1 Tracks: 1
Overwritable: 00:00:00 blocks: 0 / 0.00MB / 0.00MiB
Space Free: 00:00:00 blocks: 0 / 0.00MB / 0.00MiB
Space Used: 846:35:55 blocks: 3809680 / 7.80GB / 7.27GiB
Writability:
Book Type: DVD-ROM (v1)
3) Now you will need to umount the disk with the following command:
diskutil unmountDisk disk2 (replace the disk# with yours)
4) Now you can write the ISO file with the dd utility, which is a built-in utility for copying disks:
dd if=/dev/disk2 of=name-of-file.iso
(replace disk# with yours and change the name of the “of=” file, which is the “Output File” name)
5) When finished you can remount the disk so you can use it with this command:
diskutil mountDisk disk2
Or you can eject the disk with this command (no remount necessary):
diskutil eject disk2
Ve
ndor Product Rev
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