How to make an ISO using mkisofs

I find when testing I need to archive copious amounts of data. Occasionally I need to create a bootable disk image for use in the creation of virtual machines or impromptu test labs. Storing this information and images in the ISO format is quite handy.

Most people will already know how to make an ISO image using their favourite disk tool. Nero & MagicISO are two popular programs that come to mind. But for those that like to keep it free, try the following from your terminal instead …

mkisofs is a simple terminal app that creates ISO-9660 CD-ROM filesystem images.

If you don’t already have mkisofs then just do a google for the relevant install. To install on my Mac (OS X) I used fink:

fink install mkisofs


To create a bootable ISO for an operating system install such as Windows Server 2003 (handy for those virtual machines), provided you have a boot.img and the relevant i386 files:

cd root/of/your/files
mkisofs -b boot.img -no-emul-boot -boot-load-seg 1984 -boot-load-size 4 -iso-level 2 -J -joliet-long -l -D -relaxed-filenames -N -V NRMSVOL_EN -v -x .DS_Store -o ../Win2K3.iso .


To create a backup of the production log files you are busily examining:

mkisofs -iso-level 2 -J -joliet-long -l -D -relaxed-filenames -N -V NameOfBackup -v -x .DS_Store -o ~/Desktop/NameOfBackup.iso .