In order to write DVD/DVD-RW from shell prompt you need to install a package called dvd+rw-tools.
DVD is another good option for backup, archiving, data exchange etc. You can install dvd+rw-tools with following commands. Also note that this package works under *BSD, HP-UX, Solaris and other UNIX like operating systems.
Debian installation:
# apt-get install 'dvd+rw-tools'
Fedora Core Linux installation:
# yum install 'dvd+rw-tools'
RedHat Enterprise Linux installation:
# up2date 'dvd+rw-tools'
In order to write DVD you need to install cdrecord tools.
How do I write DVD?
You need to use growisofs command, which combined mkisofs frontend/DVD recording program. From growisofs man page, "growisofs was originally designed as a frontend to mkisofs to facilitate appending of data to ISO9660 volumes residing on random-access media such as DVD+RW, DVD-RAM, plain files, hard disk partitions. In the course of development general purpose DVD recording support was implemented, and as of now growisofs supports not only random-access media, but even mastering of multiession DVD media such as DVD+R and DVD-R/-RW. In addition growisofs supports first-/single-session recording of arbitrary pre-mastered image (formatted as UDF, ISO9660 or any other file system, if formatted at all) to all supported DVD media types."
First create the ISO image
# mkisofs -r -o /tmp/var-www-disk1.iso /var/www
Now use the growisofs command to write the ISO onto the DVD:
# growisofs -Z /dev/dvd=/tmp/var-www-disk1.iso
To append more data for same DVD:
# growisofs -M /dev/dvd /tmp/file.1
To format (erase) a DVD:
# dvd+rw-format -force /dev/dvd
OR
# dvd+rw-format -force=full /dev/dvd
The dvd+rw-format command formats dvd disk in the specified dvd drive.
To display information about dvd drive and disk using dvd+rw-mediainfo command:
# dvd+rw-mediainfo /dev/dvd
See also:
- For more information read man pages of above command
- Visit official web site: DVD+RW/+R/-R[W] for Linux
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- Last Updated: Jul/10/2007
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Since growisofs has an inbuilt functionality that allows to directly pipe mkisofs’s output, it is probably more common that you call it without making an ISO beforehand. Note also that it’s absolutely not needed to format a DVD+RW more than once. You can just write again with the -Z option in later runs. Yes, this is different from CD-RWs.
man growisofs is a much better manual to using growisofs
Since having growisofs make the iso as it burns has already been mentioned here is another tip…
Before you start burning use par2create from par2cmdline (http://parchive.sourceforge.net/) to generate enough par2 recovery blocks to fill any space that is left on the disc. That way if the disc gets damaged later you may be able to recover the lost data.
I have written a perl script to calculate out the correct number of par2 blocks to generate and to do it (it also makes a .md5 file). I have published the script here: http://www.sanitarium.net/unix_stuff/par2calc.txt
if the DVD gets damaged, how can you recover the file? Even it’s not only that the file is corrupted. It’s also that you can’t actually read the dvd. The dvd reader woudl go crazy and you wouldn’t be able to copy the damaged file to disk, afaik?
Heh
perhaps what op or his script suggesting that you can recover particular block provided that DVD can be read by DVD drive.
But in most case DVD reader refuses to read corrupted DVD. I have used Sony, HP, Samsung DVD/RW etc none of they were able to read corrupted DVD.
Thanks for the howto, I don’t think I would have figured out which tool to use otherwise.
True, the man page for growisofs has more complete info, but I would have never know to look for growisofs without the page. I would not have felt confident in using mkisofs and growisofs together without this example. So I’d like to thank the author for his redundancy. This explanation works for the way I think.
Using PAR2 on removable media is not as daft as some of you think.
I’ve read from a CD in the past where an edge… erm, chord, containing data had actually broken off!
Just use dd it to a disk image (possibly adding options conv=noerror,sync).
It’ll probably make loads of strange noises and take ages, but you should be able to do it depending on where the damage is… unles your disk blows up in the process of course!
I have a Acer laptop and when I put a cd/dvd disk in it the message says…No disc in drive E:
Nice.
How about DVD-RW packet-writing and UDF filesystem.
Will these steps work on RHEL4/RHEL5?
Will we need to mount the DVD drive before burning?
Yes it should work on RHEL 4 / 5. No need to mount dvd.
I had a broken(?) DVD RW disc, that NeroLinux isn’t wrote. I run “dvd+rw-format -force=full /dev/dvd ” command on my Gentoo, later I wrote that DVD without any problem! Thaks a lot! :-)
(and sorry ma bad English)