How to Burn an ISO Image to a Hard Drive

ISO files are digital images of physical discs. They are an efficient way to create an exact copy of a CD or DVD for backup and archiving purposes. You can later burn that ISO image to a blank CD or DVD to recreate the original disc. Microsoft Windows does not have the native ability to save ISO images of disc to your hard drive, so third-party software is necessary.

Things You'll Need

• ISO creation and extraction software

Instructions

1. Download and install an application capable of creating ISO images from CD/DVD-ROM drives. MagicoISO, IMGBurn and PowerISO are all capable of this.

2. Insert the CD or DVD into the computer's optical drive.

3. Open the application. Select the option to create an ISO image from a disc. Refer to the "Help" files of the specific application if you cannot find this feature. The placement and wording may differ among applications.

4. Select the proper source (CD/DVD-ROM drive). Select a folder on your hard drive to save the file. Name the resulting ISO file.

5. Click "Start/OK/Read" to begin the process. It may take a while to fully create the ISO image depending on the speed of your CD/DVD-ROM and the size of the original disc. Once complete, you will have an ISO image of the CD/DVD on your computer's hard drive.

References

• MagicISO: Create ISO from CD/DVD
• IMGBurn: Guides
• PowerISO: Tutorials

Resources

• MagicISO
• IMGBurn
• PowerISO