Copy a CD or DVD with dd

April 18th, 2008 by Mitch Frazier

If you need to copy a CD to your hard drive: 

  prompt@shell$  dd if=/dev/cdrom of=/path/to/cdcopy.iso

For a DVD: 

  prompt@shell$  dd if=/dev/dvd of=/path/to/dvdcopy.iso

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anjanaya's picture

A good article related to the issue

On May 14th, 2008 anjanaya says:

I thought it was a nice one to read

  • http://www.troubleshooters.com/linux/coasterless.htm
    • Anonymous's picture

    I think the title should

    On April 18th, 2008 Anonymous (not verified) says:

    I think the title should read how to copy a data CD/DVD. (No applicable to music CDs)

    pbhj's picture

    ddrescue? and why not music CDs

    On April 19th, 2008 pbhj (not verified) says:

    I'd have thought that you'd be better using something like ddrescue that verifies the data it copies (not sure if cdparanoia can do this to copy to hdd too).

    Also, why not for music discs? You can pipe them through your music player then can't you?

    MiguelKJ's picture

    only copies the first 512MB of the DVD

    On October 31st, 2008 MiguelKJ (not verified) says:

    I am using FC6 but
    dd if=/dev/dvd of=/path/to/dvdcopy.iso
    only copies the first 512MB of the DVD.

    Is there a way to copy the whole disk ?

    Mitch Frazier's picture

    Check system log

    On November 4th, 2008 Mitch Frazier says:

    That should copy the whole disk. I'd check your system log to see if you're getting some kind of error.

    Anonymous's picture

    try bs=1024 in option

    On May 25th, 2009 Anonymous (not verified) says:

    try bs=1024 in option

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