26 Oct
2006
26 Oct
'06
1:03 p.m.
Seth J. Morabito wrote:
Hey folks,
Does anyone have any guidelines about making archival images of
CD-ROM media? For years, I've been using dd on Solaris or Linux
to dump the raw bytes of CD-ROMs, and cdrecord if I want to make
a copy from the raw image, but I don't know if this is considered
"good enough" to preserve all the associated filesystem and partition
structures of the disc. It has been for me, so far, but I'd like to
hear other opinions on the matter. How do you archive CD-ROM images?
Hmm, won't most tools create an ISO filesystem image from a CD? I would expect
that's good enough in nearly all cases, although possibly not for things like
games consoles where I believe the original media's screwed around with as an
anti-piracy measure.
Personally I find that I only ever use a few percent of the commercial
software on a CD, though - e.g. I'll just install the app but not all the
bundled junk that comes with it. Saving an archive image means you get
everything, warts and all. For a true archive you should save everything, but
if it's really just for personal use I'd be tempted to just save what you
think you'll need.