Ripping Data from Optical Media

This article will guide you through the process of ripping (or extracting) data from optical media (i.e. DVDs and CDs). The process will take files on a CD, or DVD and convert them into a standardised ISO image for use on computers without either CD or DVD drive. This process is intended for archival purposes or to reduce wearing out legally-obtained CDs and DVDs.

Ubuntu
There are two well-known methods for creating disk images of DVDs and CDs in Ubuntu:


 * 1) Using the ddrescue utility to copy each block of the CD or DVD
 * 2) Using software to extract and/or build an image of the DVD/CD

Brasero
Brasero, a CD/DVD burning software suite for GNU/Linux, can be create disk images of DVDs and CDs. This method may work more effectively for stratched or damaged optical media, since it does not read the data at such a low level compared to dd and similar tools. Brasero only copies the capacity of the files occupying the CD and so, the resulting image is much smaller compared to using the ''ddrescue' method.