Some quick instructions on how to create an ISO image from a CD or DVD using Mac OS X. But sadly this has failed in creating iso images of some disks, such as Microsoft installer disks.

  1. Insert source CD/DVD

  2. Open a Terminal, to determine the CD/DVD drive drive, using the following command: $ drutil status Vendor Product Rev OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5960S 2AP5

                Type: CD-ROM               Name: /dev/disk1
        Sessions: 1                  Tracks: 1 
    Overwritable:   00:00:00         blocks:        0 /   0.00MB /   0.00MiB
      Space Free:   00:00:00         blocks:        0 /   0.00MB /   0.00MiB
      Space Used:   65:11:67         blocks:   293392 / 600.87MB / 573.03MiB
     Writability:
  3. Unmount the disk with the following command: $ diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk1 Disk /dev/disk1 unmounted
  4. Create the ISO file with the dd utility (may take some time): $ dd if=/dev/disk1 of=file.iso bs=2048
  5. Test the ISO image by mounting the new file (or open with Finder): $ hdid file.iso
  6. The ISO image can then be burnt to a blank CD/DVD.