How to Copy a DVD to a Hard Drive in OS X

Saving a DVD to a hard drive ensures you can access the disc, even if the physical copy is damaged

Saving a DVD to a hard drive on a Mac OS X system allows you to watch the DVD without inserting the disc and to back up the disc for later recreation. The Disk Utility program included with OS X can copy the entire contents of a DVD to a hard drive. The process creates a disk image file, which saves not only the video information on the DVD, but any additional menu information and content as well.

Instructions

1. Turn on your Mac OS X computer and insert the DVD into the system's disc drive. Make sure that OS X recognizes the disc and that it appears on the desktop.

2. Open the "Applications" folder and select "Utilities." Click "Disk Utility" to start the program.

3. Select the DVD from the list of media in the left frame and click the "New Image" button.

4. Give the image a name and select a location on your hard drive. Select "CD/DVD Master" from the drop-down menu. Click "Save" to output the DVD to an image file. By default, Disk Utility creates CDR files from discs.

5. Open the CDR file from the desktop. OS X will automatically mount the disc when it has finished creating the CDR file and will display the image on the desktop alongside the physical disc. You can unmount the disc as you would a physical DVD by dragging the file to the trash/eject icon.

Tips & Warnings

• You can copy other CD or DVDs as well as hard disks and flash drives using this method, as long as you have enough free hard-drive space available.

• DVD images may take up several gigabytes worth of space on your hard drive. Be sure you have enough free space before starting the imaging process.

References

• Indiana University: In Mac OS X, What is Disk Utility, and How Do I Use It?
• MacTalk: Disk Utility New Image