How to use M-Disc on macOS with third-party software?

M-Disc supports these write options:

M-Discs are available in capacities of 4.7 GB (DVD), 25 GB (Blu-ray), 50 GB (Double Layer Blu-ray), and 100 GB (BDXL Triple Layer Blu-ray). They are designed for long-term archival, utilizing a ceramic-like material to store data that can last for centuries.

In other words, the same options as dye-based disks, but with the added need for a drive that can burn an M-Disc.

According to reports I found online, people often use Toast Titanium on a Mac to write M-Discs. I can confirm with the latest (and likely last) version of Toast Titanium, it can write these sizes:

That said, Toast Titanium is Intel only software. And all Intel apps will die near the end of 2027. The next major macOS release late this year (likely to be named macOS 27) will be the last to run Intel apps. The one after that (assume macOS 28) will be native Apple Silicon only.

Other places I found said you can use macOS' built-in Burn utility to write an M-Disc. I assume you're only looking to write data disks, so that should work.

Express Disk Burner (available on the App Store) is another that is said to write such disks. Again, it's the drive you're using. The software itself, like Toast, does not actually say M-Disc. You just choose a matching Blu-ray disk size.

One thing to think about. M-Discs are said to last possibly centuries. But!, that's only useful if anyone has a working drive that far in the future, or if anyone is still making them. It's far, far more likely your data will have to be transferred at some point to a newer storage system as M-Discs go the way of essentially everything in the world of computers.

I mean, all of these have died just since I started on the front end of personal computers. And I've used every one of these:

1. 10" floppy disks
2. 5 1/4" floppy disks
3. 3 1/2" floppy disks
4. SCSI
5. Parallel
6. Firewire
7. USB 1 (with version 2 also not being used in essentially anything now)
8. EGA
9. VGA
10. DVI
11. IDE
12. Syquest drives
13. Zip and Jaz drives
14. MiniDiscs, LaserDiscs, and early Magneto-Optical (MO) drives
15. DAT (Digital Audio Tape), Exabyte 8mm, 9 track tape formats
16. 5.25" hard drives (you can probably still find them, but not many)

And that's not quite everything. So someday, M-Disc will join this list, and probably a lot sooner than you would think. CD, DVD and Blu-ray are already approaching their end.

What it means is the M-Disc type can be found in either DVD type discs or Blu-Ray type discs. There is no M-Disc type disc on its own. M-Disc is just the definition the storage method and the composition of the disc and uses either DVDs or Blu-Ray type discs.

The media type, i.e DVDs or Blu-Rays just define the capacity, not how they are made or what they are made of. M-Disc uses DVDs or Blu-Rays that are not dye based.

Again. if you have an M-Disc Dvd you can read it and write it on an M-Disc certified drive with no additional software.

If you have M-Disc blu-rays, you need a certified M-disc blu-ray writer drive to read or write them, and blu-ray reading and burning software for it.

H and J wrote:

There is an explicit M-Disc media.

Not in the sense that I think you are talking about.

There is no "plain" or unique-unto-itself M-Disc media. There are CD, DVD, BD, BDXL, DVD-R etc. optical disk media that are manufactured using the M-Disc inorganic recording layer instead of the typical organic dye layer.

"M-Disc" media per se do not exist on the market. M-Disc CD, M-Disc DVD, M-Disc BD, M-Disk DVD-R etc. are what you buy and use.

M-Disc certified media can be read by any player that can read the type of media (CD, DVD, DVD-R, BD, etc) but M-Disk certified media can only be burned by an M-Disc capable drive.

Also, if you have an M-Disc drive, you can burn M-Disc CD or DVD type discs as usual. But to burn an M-Disc Blu-Ray (any flavor of BluRay) you need an app that can burn BluRay (e.g. Toast Titanium).

M-Disc is the overarching type of media its not a type of disc onto itself. M-Discs can be either DVD or Blu-ray.

blu-rays can be as mentioned by our single, double or triple layer.

DVD type M-Discs do not need special software. But need the special M-Disc drive.

Blu-Ray M-Discs need the software and the drive.

Depends on the type of disc being burned.

Blu-ray by definition requires 3rd party software to read and burn, the Mac won't do it on tis own. As such M-Disc Blu-Rays will require the same special software to read and burn a disc as well as a special M-Disc drive that can burn the discs.

M-Disc DVDs can be burned without extra software, but still require the special M-Disc drive to burn them.

I'm sure I missed some technologies I've used over the years. 🙂 The 10" floppies were for storing scan setups on an old Crosfield drum scanner.

I skipped mentioning 2.5" and 3.5" HHD since those are still readily available. In fact, you really have no choice but to use them on a TiVo when a drive in one dies. Since those devices write literally all the time, SSDs don't last long.

I do remember the Orb drive. Couldn't think of the name though until you mentioned it. I almost bought one when I saw it was a former Syquest employee who started the company, figuring they'd be a better choice than Zip or Jaz. But by the time I really thought about getting one, the company had folded.

MO was indeed slow, but the drive I had was very reliable. And like M-Disc, the discs were nearly indestructible. Sounds like you're familiar with them, but the laser heated a sector to a melted state, then wrote the data before it cooled. Once it did cool, as a review on these drives/disks mentioned, the pulse of an atomic bomb couldn't erase the data on an MO disk.

H AND J wrote:

Sorry to push back about your information about M-Disc. There is an explicit M-Disc media.

See a previous reply with a link, M DISC Developer of M DISC

Think we are discussing two different things.

The composition and what are made are different than dye based media, ie, dye based media doesn’t last as long as an explicit M-Disc media, up to a 100 years or more for M-Disc,

From Wiki:

”The patents protecting the M-DISC technology assert that the data layer is a glassy carbon material that is substantially inert to oxidation and has a melting point of 200–1000 °C (392–1832 °F).”

The melting point is more robust than any dye based media. Dye based may last up to 30 years.

DVD-ROM and Blu-ray ROM are more stable than any dye based media.

AGAIN NO!. THERE IS NO M-DISC MEDIA ON ITS OWN.

The M-Discs exist on DVDs or blu-rays. There is no M-disc media as its own type of disc. This is not a thing. Nowhere in the links does it say that. It says the M-Disc DVDs and blu-rays have this special composition of glassy carbon that makes them last much longer than regular dye based DVDs and blu-rays.

They are still DVDs and blu-rays but have the special M-disc composition and it's these discs that can last up to 100 years.

H AND J wrote:

So, these M-Disc media either DVD and Blu-ray are NOT dye based?

Correct. They M-Disc DVDs or Blu-Rays made to the M-Disc specification that does not use dye. They are made as M-Disc types of DVDs and blu-rays.

Instead are composed of a glassy based material.

Correct.

The M-Disc media, either DVD and/or Blu-ray are made so either can be read by their respective drive types.

Yes.

Say DVD and/or Blu-ray and one thinks dye based.

It's just a convenient naming scheme for their capacity. Not how they are made.

If so, light dawns on Marble head, my bad :(

Its o.k. It happens.

Just one more on reminiscing since it doesn't add anything to the technical end of the topic. 🙂

The Quadex front end also had a HDD with a removable platter (think platter size was 10”).

That brings back more old stuff. The Scitex system I worked on used 300 MB removable disk packs. You'd turn the drive off, open the lid of the machine and swap packs.

Bernoulli Box, any one?

Knew of them by name only. Never saw or used one.

Ugliest one: We took a 300 MB hard drive out of one of Scitex towers to trash it. It took up an entire bay and weighed (not kidding) at least 200 pounds. It took four of us to pull the drive out and move it onto a cart. Heads were so far away from the platter surfaces in those days, all that was needed to keep the drive clean was enough air for dust to get blown out by the spinning drive. There wasn't even a cover over the platters or head mechanisms.