Use dd to convert a DVD or CD into an ISO file.

for cygwin special filenames, see http://www.cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/using-specialnames.html

this explains device fixed links as (ls /dev does not work but certain paths do, i.e., /dev/sr0)

"The new fixed POSIX names are mapped to NT internal devices as follows:

/dev/st0	\device\tape0, rewind

/dev/nst0	\device\tape0, no-rewind

/dev/st1	\device\tape1

...



/dev/fd0	\device\floppy0

/dev/fd1	\device\floppy1

...



/dev/scd0	\device\cdrom0

/dev/scd1	\device\cdrom1

...



/dev/sr0	\device\cdrom0

/dev/sr1	\device\cdrom1

...



/dev/sda	\device\harddisk0\partition0	(whole disk)

/dev/sda1	\device\harddisk0\partition1	(first partition)

...

/dev/sda15	\device\harddisk0\partition15	(fifteenth partition)



/dev/sdb	\device\harddisk1\partition0

/dev/sdb1	\device\harddisk1\partition1



[up to]



/dev/sdl	\device\harddisk11\partition0

/dev/sdl1	\device\harddisk11\partition1

...

/dev/sdl15	\device\harddisk11\partition15

"

Use the dd command to create an ISO image:

on linux

dd if=/dev/dvd of=/tmp/mydvd.iso

on cygwin

dd if=/dev/sr0 of=/cygdrive/c/temp/cdrom.iso

(sr0 is sr<zero> which means the first cdrom of the system, see above cygwin special filenames link)

to access the contents of this ISO image you can mount it and access it like a normal DVD player:

mkdir /mnt/iso
mount -o loop -t iso9660 /tmp/mydvd.iso /mnt/iso

To unmount use

umount -d /mnt/iso

"If you use this to (legally) backup your DVD collection, you can play them back using VLC Media Player. This lets you 'open a disc' and you can use the URL dvd:///mnt/iso to access it like it was in the DVD tray. Very cool! Its nice having the whole disk as one file, which you can mount when you like to access the individual files. No more messing around finding disks and having problems reading them when they get scratched."