How to Create an ISO File in Ubuntu

How to Create an ISO File in Ubuntu

In this article we will see how to create ISO file  from Files. You can easily back up or archive the files and folders into an ISO file.

dd command

Using dd command, we can create copies of data whether they are file or folders, partitions, or CD/DVDs. We can also make use of dd command to create ISO files.


Syntax:

$ dd if=[source] of=[target.iso]

If= The source of data.

Of= The output.

Lets understand it with some Examples:

The following command to copy and save the contents of the root drive as an ISO file named "rootimage.iso" in the backup directory:

root@manas-VirtualBox:~# dd if=/dev/sda of=/backup/rootimage.iso
20971520+0 records in
20971520+0 records out
10737418240 bytes (11 GB, 10 GiB) copied, 345.874 s, 31.0 MB/s
root@manas-VirtualBox:~#

Mkisofs utility

Mkisofs utility comes by default with Ubuntu install. You can use Mkisofs to take backup automatically.

The basic syntax of the command is:

$ mkisofs -o [filename.iso] [ directory_path]

-o --- name of the ISO file


I will  create an ISO file from the directory /home/manas/ and save it as manasbackup.iso file:

root@manas-VirtualBox:~# mkisofs -o manasbackup.iso /home/manas/

It will create the manasbackup.iso file and save it in the current directory.