Copying CDs

[Bruce Dawson]

On Sat, 2004-04-24 at 09:19, Michael ODonnell wrote:
> >> Does anyone know how I can copy the whole CD as an ISO filesystem file?
> >  Use the "readcd" program that comes with the cdrecord/mkisofs package.
> >The syntax is (from memory, so double-check this):
> >        readcd dev=/dev/sgfoo f=cdimage.iso
> >where "sgfoo" is the SCSI generic device, and "cdimage.iso" is the output
> >file.  The "dd" command may also work, but it can have trouble with CDs that
> >use some of the more esoteric features of the CD standards.
> IIRC, bootable CDs (El Torito spec) have a section on them
> (not accessible by normal means) for what amounts to an
> initrd - a little ramdisk that a CD-boot-capable BIOS is
> obliged to load into memory and treat as the A: drive,
> giving you a place to stand while you haul other stuff
> off of the CD into memory.  I'm pretty sure that just
> dd'ing a bootable CD won't properly recreate that part.
> I think stuff like the ISO9660 TOC (table of contents)
> might also require special handling.

This scenario is part of what I was afraid of. However, it appears that
dd'ing the CD and cdrecord'ing the result worked. Fortunately. I was
also concerned that the "boot block" was part of the cdrecord process,
but it seems that most BIOS know to look for it in the ISO image.

I seem to remember from a long time ago, that just dd'ing a CD (or hard
drive for that matter) didn't produce workable results. Looks like
things have gotten better since then. 

Thanks for all the help guys...
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