If burning a CD or DVD is now a very rare operation, given the spread of microSD and other types of media much faster and more capacious (just think of USB sticks and external USB disks. If we have a installation of a program, a DVD with a personal video or a DVD Video that we want to keep from the wear and tear of time, we can copy the discs on Windows using a common burner . Let's see how to connect a modern burner to computers without this peripheral and which free programs to use to make a digital copy of the disc (in ISO format).
Article Index
- Choose an external burner
- How to copy disks on Windows
- How to copy protected DVD Video and Blu-Ray
- How to read ISO files on Windows
- Programs to extract music and videos (Ripping)
Choose an external burner
First of all we will have to check if our computer has a burner: on some laptops it is now gone, as well as on the latest generation of fixed computers. If our computer has a few years on its shoulders, we will find the drive on the front of the desktop PC or on one of the two sides of the laptop (on the sides of the keyboard).
If, on the other hand, our computer does not have a burner, we recommend purchasing an external model, which can be connected via USB to any computer.
The best models we can view are:
- External CD DVD Writer, Cocopa USB 3.0 External DVD Drive (20 €)
- External USB 3.0 Type-C CD DVD Writer (23 €)
- 4K Blu Ray DVD Player External Burner (89 €)
- techPulse120 UHD 4k 3D M-Disc Black BDXL USB 3.0 & Type C Reader (144 €)
Depending on the type of disc to be copied, we can choose between a simple DVD burner or a Blu-ray burner, in addition to choosing the type of USB cable to be used (standard or Type-C, for more modern computers). The prices of external DVD / CD burners are very low and accessible to everyone, while Blu-ray burners are much more expensive.
How to copy disks on Windows
If our disk to be copied contains simple files and folders or we want to copy an unprotected Audio CD, DVD Video or Blu-ray, we can easily copy its contents using the free ImgBurn program.
Once downloaded and installed on your computer, download the Italian translation from here, extract the Italian.lng file and move it to the folder C: / Program Files (x86) / ImgBurn / Languages ; at this point you can start the program translated into Italian.
Now all you have to do is insert your DVD or CD into the burner, click on the Create a disc image button, make sure that the right burner is selected in the Source field, we indicate the path and name of the ISO file to be created by clicking on the button next to the Select a file item (in the Destination section) then click on the Read button, present at the bottom, to start the process of copying the disk on Windows.
The program will immediately copy the entire disc into a single ISO file, which we can keep on the hard disk or on any other digital medium. The copy made is 1: 1, that is identical to the original: if for example the DVD contained 3 GB of data, the ISO image created will be 3 GB precise.
How to copy protected DVD Video and Blu-Ray
Over the years, various copy protection systems have been added to many media with multimedia content, designed to discourage piracy.
However, this also poses an obstacle for users who simply want to copy the optical disc to protect it from wear and tear: in fact , copying of protected discs for personal purposes (and not for dissemination) is permitted by law, using special tools to bypass these protections .
The best program that I recommend you to use to copy protected DVD Videos and Blu-Ray is AnyDVD HD.
This program is available for a fee by paying for one or more years or by choosing to pay the always active version, but can be tried for free for 21 days with all the functionalities active (no demo version or with locked options).
If we have to copy discs on the fly, we can also use the free trial version, since the time offered should be enough to remove the protections from all our discs.
Once the free trial version is downloaded, we start the installation of the program and restart the PC when requested; on restart we open the AnyDVD HD program and make sure it remains active in the lower right part. There is no need to activate any option or click on any button: the program, if active, will automatically remove the protections integrated in the DVD Video or Blu-ray as soon as they are inserted in the player .
So after activating the program we insert the optical disc into the burner, wait a few minutes and open ImgBurn to copy the disc as seen previously.
READ ALSO: Copy protected DVDs or compress them for 4.7 GB DVD5s
How to read ISO files on Windows
To read the ISO files without burning them to a new optical disc, we can rely on the integrated tool within Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. To use it, just right click on the ISO file created, click the Mount button and check, in the This section PC, the presence of the disk inside a virtual player (created by Windows for the occasion).
Alternatively, if we have Windows 7 or want to use another program, we can rely on Daemon Tools Lite, downloadable for free for all versions of Windows.
After installing the program, open it and create a virtual reader by clicking on Add reader ; alternatively we can quickly mount a personal ISO image file by dragging the file into the interface, in correspondence with the Quick assembly item.
The disc will be displayed by Windows in the This PC or My Computer section and will be accessible as if it were a physical optical disc.
If we want to burn the created ISO image, I recommend you read our guide to the burner for creating and recording CD and DVD discs which summarizes all the main ways to use the writing and copying functionality of discs on Windows.
Programs to extract music and videos (Ripping)
If, on the other hand, we are looking for free programs to extract the contents of DVDs, CDs and Blu-ray discs to be able to use them on a PC or to load them on mobile devices, we can use those included in the list below:
- HandBrake : free program useful to rip DVD and Blu-ray content, so as to convert videos to MKV; if the disks are protected, it must be placed next to AnyDVD HD during the conversion process.
- EAC (Exact Audio Copy) : free program designed to extract the tracks of Audio CDs at the highest possible quality.
Using these two programs we will be able to copy multimedia optical discs with a few clicks and with an enviable quality. Obviously if we already have a disk with simple files and folders, just select them and copy them on the computer as you do with any other file or folder, also using the keyboard shortcuts (CTRL + A to select them, CTRL + C to copy them and CTRL + V to paste them on any PC folder).
If instead we wanted to burn an optical disc, I recommend you read our guide on How to Burn CDs and DVDs for free (Windows and Mac) .
