I just got my powerbook a few days ago. I cannot figure out how to make a copy of a cd so that it is readable in windows. I have had success going into disk utility and making an image of the cd I want, and then burning that image to a disk. It is readable in OSX but not in windows. Is there some options that I am missing here?
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Copy a CD in OS X
- Thread starter cemorris
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ahh, you've noticed one of Mac OS X's great shortcomings - awful, totally inadequate built-in CD burning capabilities!
my advice is to go to versiontracker.com or macupdate.com and see what sort of third-party burning apps you like. Toast is the gold standard, but it's expensive. i've had good luck with a little app called DiscBlaze. both of those apps will let you burn ISO-9960 CDs (in other words, a "raw data" format that Mac, Windows, Linux, etc can all read). there are also some options for burning special "hybrid" discs that have two partitions on the CD, one for Mac, and one for PCs. the drawback there is that you can only store half as much data on the disc.
but seriously, for a supposed "digital lifestyle" platform, OS X's built-in CD burning software is laughable.
my advice is to go to versiontracker.com or macupdate.com and see what sort of third-party burning apps you like. Toast is the gold standard, but it's expensive. i've had good luck with a little app called DiscBlaze. both of those apps will let you burn ISO-9960 CDs (in other words, a "raw data" format that Mac, Windows, Linux, etc can all read). there are also some options for burning special "hybrid" discs that have two partitions on the CD, one for Mac, and one for PCs. the drawback there is that you can only store half as much data on the disc.
but seriously, for a supposed "digital lifestyle" platform, OS X's built-in CD burning software is laughable.
cemorris said:
Sure you're selecting DVD/CD Master as the image type and not HFS+? Also some Mac apps are on HFS+ cds so they aren't readable in Windows anyway.
Odd, since I have no problem burning CDs on my Mac which show up just fine on my Dell laptop.603 said:
603 said:
These are the kind of stories I read from switchers that partly put me off switching to Mac. To do the same things I could do easily and for free on a PC, I need to purchase tonnes of additional software for the Mac.
So how do you burn a windows compatible CD in Max OS X? Or is it just not possible at all?
What is it you need to burn? Music CDs I burn on my Mac work fine on my PC. Data disks work fine. DVDs work fine. I'm missing what it is that doesn't work. The only think I've had problems with are copying commercial DVDs, downsizing them, and burning them, and for that I needed Toast. Otherwise, I fail to see any need for additional software.
Every data CD I've burned via the Finder (free) has worked on multiple flavors of Windows, no bells or whistles to turn on. But if you're tuned into getting everything for free, don't switch.
yellow said:
I looked on Google, all the sites I looked at said Macs could read most PC CDs ok , but Mac CD's were not compatible with Windows. What format do you select when you burn your CDs that maked them work on windows?
I have about 20,000 images on CD (many are multi session) created with my current PC, the thought of getting a Mac and it not being able to access them is a little off putting.
I drop a CD-R into the tray, close the tray, drag files onto the resulting desktop icon, eject the tray (which prompts to start the burn), take the CD, and put it into my Dell laptop. The files show up just fine.MacSA said:
If you're worried about being able to read your Windows CDs, take a copy to any store which sells Apple products, put the CD into one of them, and see if you can read them.
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True. I should have said "I used Toast because I was too lazy to look for anything else and I had it laying around" instead of "I needed Toast".parrothead said:
By default (I don't even know if this is changable) the Mac burns CDs in the Finder as ISO 9660 compliant CDs, meaning the written in a standard that is supposed to be viewable in Windows/DOS, Mac OS, and probably many other ISO 9660 compliant OSes..
yellow said:
Just to add a bit of support for Finders compatability with Windows when it comes to burning CDs, I would suggest some coasters are caused by user error. I hold my hand up here.
I have just had the pee taken out of me by my PC colleagues because on my Mac I failed to correctly burn a CD containing an Autorun file for a PC ie, the CD did not automatically launch when put in the PC, which by my mates' PC mind extension, meant Mac was crap.
However I am having the last laugh, because a) I just realised my mistake ie I had copied all the project files from the disc and put them inside a new project folder on my desktop and burnt that folder to disk. This folder confused the PC, so I resolved the hiccup just by dragging all the files straight onto the new disk in Finder, no additional folder involved. It burnt perfectly for PC and Mac, just like the dialogue box says in Mac OSX.
And having tried to find an automated way of burning a couple of hundred disks, I tried out Diskblaze, and right from the first attempt, I was able to make a hybrid version ie if you put the CD in a Mac, first off you see a custom icon for the disk, which is very pretty! and only the files relevant to the Mac are visible. Put it in a PC and it auto launches. Also it takes half the time of going through the Finder process, which is half the time it takes to burn the cd on my colleagues PC too, so as time is money, the expensive Mac is again proving more economical.
Buy Toast Titanium 5. It is very cheap and will make your life so much easier. When you want to burn some weird format, or need to create a disk image, Toast is there. I rank it as a top-10 essential OS X applications. Toast 6 does the same thing but with more eye candy, IMO.
You most likely will not regret it.
You most likely will not regret it.
cemorris said:
MacSA said:
Lets get this straight from the start - you DO NOT need Toast to burn CD's.
For data CD's burn directly from Finder by dragging files to the CD then clicking burn. It will be compatible with Windows. 'cemorris' I think your problem is that you're creating a disk image, which can only be mounted on Macs.
For burning pictures do the same thing as above. If you use iPhoto I would not recommend burning directly from iPhoto itself unless you plan on using the disk exclusively with iPhoto, because the photos will be organised in the same sub structure as you see in Finder, making it a bitch to find photos. Instead just select the photos you want to burn, export, drag to disc and burn as above.
For music, create a playlist and burn from iTunes is the easiest thing to do.
What I want to do
I know how to create data cd's and music cd's. I wanted to create an exact copy of a CD. So to do this I create an image (coming from the Linux world this is how I did it) and save it to disk. Next take out the CD and put in a blank and burn the created image to that disk. It seems that the image I create in the first step is not iso9660, and is instead hfs which is why windows cannot read it. This is what I assume the limitation of the Disk Utility is and that it cannot create a iso9660 image. If there are options I am missing to do this, please let me know.
I know how to create data cd's and music cd's. I wanted to create an exact copy of a CD. So to do this I create an image (coming from the Linux world this is how I did it) and save it to disk. Next take out the CD and put in a blank and burn the created image to that disk. It seems that the image I create in the first step is not iso9660, and is instead hfs which is why windows cannot read it. This is what I assume the limitation of the Disk Utility is and that it cannot create a iso9660 image. If there are options I am missing to do this, please let me know.