How to Copy a Bootable CD to a USB Drive

By Stephen A. Powell, eHow Contributor

Preserving a bootable CD in digital form for either storage or transport safeguards your utility against loss and damage. Copying a disk image of the bootable CD on an external USB drive, such as a flash disk, allows you to readily recreate the bootable disc on another computer or even run it from the connected hardware. Disk images take on ISO and DMG file formats on Windows and Mac operating systems respectively.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Windows

   • 1
     Install a disk image creation utility if you do not already have one, such as Consider MagicISO, Nero Burning ROM or Acronis True Image (see Resources).
   • 2
     Insert the bootable disc into your CD-ROM.
   • 3
     Launch the disk image creator.
   • 4
     Select "Bootable disc image" or "Disk Image" from the new file menu.
   • 5
     Choose the CD-ROM drive from the file browser or drag and drop the disc icon into the disk image panel.
   • 6
     Save the new ISO. Name the file as desired within the save dialog.
   • 7
     Connect the USB drive to your computer.
   • 8
     Drag and drop the bootable CD's disk image into the USB drive's file folder.

   Mac OS

   • 1
     Insert the bootable CD into your CD-ROM.
   • 2
     Open the "Applications" folder and launch "Disk Utility."
   • 3
     Select the bootable CD's drive from the list of available volumes.
   • 4
     Select "Disk image from disk name" from the File menu's "New" tab.
   • 5
     Name the disk image and selects its file path.
   • 6
     Select "DVD/CD master" as the disk image format.
   • 7
     Click "Save." Doing so creates the bootable CD's disk image.
   • 8
     Connect the USB drive to your computer.
   • 9
     Drag and drop the bootable CD's disk image into the USB drive's file folder.

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish
• MagicISO
• Nero Burning ROM
• Acronis True Image