How do I make a copy of a disk?

[kundan]

How do I make a copy of a CD the easiest way?

On a PC, all I would do is pop the source in one drive, the blank in the other, and use something like Nero to make a fast copy.

How do I do it on an iMac with only one drive?

TIA,
cheers

 

[jcromartie]

Put the original disc in, and then open the "Disc Copy" application from Applications/Utilities. Then select the "create image from volume" option in Disc Copy. It will create a copy of the CD on your hard drive in a file with a ".dmg" extension. Then, put the blank CD in, and choose "open Disc Copy" from the dialog that will appear. Choose "burn image" from the file menu, and choose the image you created earlier. The best thing about images in OS X is that you can image CDs and keep them on your hard drive, and then open that DMG file to use it just like sticking the CD in. They "mount" on the desktop just like regular discs.

 

[unl33t]

i tried that for a bootable disk and the copy isn't bootable. is that something that i did wrong? or just way disc copy works?

 

[jcromartie]

i tried that for a bootable disk and the copy isn't bootable. is that something that i did wrong? or just way disc copy works?

Hmm, I'm not sure. Was that a Mac bootable disc? Recently I've burned a copy of a 10.2 isntall disc, and a Dynebolic Linux live CD for PC/Xbox. Both of them worked fine. Another way to do it is use the command-line "dd" command. It reads a device out to a file on your hard drive (essentially creating a disk image). I don't remember the specifics, but a "man dd" should give you the details. Anyway, just make the input file /dev/disk1 (or whatever the CD drive is... typing "df" should show you what is mounted from what device so you can see what /dev entry the CD drive is) and add ".dmg" to the output file. That is the absolutely hardcore method.