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My 10 year old hard drive has packed up. I am looking to create the old contents on a new SSD from 60+ DVDs. I have a new Mac Book Pro M3 chip . I also have a USB Super Drive to play the DVDs and a new external SSD onto which I want to store the DVDs. Looking for help in how I can achieve the transfer. Use of the old hard drive is no longer possible.
URU7400,
Assuming that these DVDs are not copy protected i.e. perhaps burnt by yourself e.t.c .
You can create disk images of your DVDs so that the disk images can be played back using DVD Player app that is on your Mac. Doing this will enable you to watch the images in the same way as you would watch the original DVDs with any menus that are present.
Taking just one of the DVDs as an experiment open Disk Utility from Applications > Utilities.
With you Super Drive connected you will see your DVD listed on the left hand side, click on it to highlight it.
Now go up to File at the top >New Image>Image From>your DVD.
Select "where" in this case your external SSD.
For Format select DVD/CD, Encryption = none, Save.
This will create a copy of your DVD on your external SSD i.e. disk image.
So as to be sure that the image plays in DVD Player app ,disconnect your Super Drive from your Mac.
Double click on the disk image in order to mount the disk image and then open DVD Player.
You may have to do a search on you Mac for DVD Player app as it may not be listed in the Applications folder.
You should now be presented with the DVD just as it would if you were watching the DVD in a conventional DVD player, complete with any menus that may be present.
The image created will have extension .cd .
When double clicking on the disk image above you should see a hard drive symbol on your desktop indicating that it has been mounted. To unmount the disk image, drag the hard drive symbol to trash.
If you mount a second disk image with the first one still mounted, then DVD player will most likely play the first image and not the second one, so unmount one before mounting another.
Or you can convert your DVDs using HandBrake using this link.
It is safe to use and recommended quite often on these forums.
Thanks for your help. I tried Handbrake and VLC. In the end I purchased MacX DVD Ripper Pro for £29. However I have had to check each disc on a separate DVD Player to see that the disc is not corrupted as the Super Drive would freeze if a corrupt disc was inserted.
Saving DVDs to external hard drive
