I tried to burn a CD that could be read by a Windows machine. I used Disk Utility (OS10.6) and made a disk image with MS-DOS format. But when I burned the CD, its info said it was in Mac format. This is puzzling. The bottom line is, can this CD be read by a Windows machine? Also, why a MS-DOS disk image but a Mac formated CD?
Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
I've been using Toast Titanium to burn Windows readable disc, though...
Mac OSX: Can't burn MS-DOS-formatted DIsk image
Thanks kaz-k. Yes, I'm aware of several third party packages that burn CDs.
But I'l like to know what the Mac OS is doing, and how to use it correctly. The documentaiton on more recent OS's states that Macs can burn CDs for both Mac and Windows.
CDs for Mac and Windows are called ISO-9660.
If you burn a disc with Finder
<http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1152>
it will be Mac and Windows readable.
Thanks for all the good info everyone. Yes, I also discovered that if you use Finder rather than Disk Utility to burn the CD, it can be read by both Macs and PCs. Although I could find little in the Mac documentation that explained that.
I have also answered part of my original question as to whether a CD burned from a disk image created with Disk Utility, and that image was created after specifying an MS-Dos format, could be read by a PC. It can, as I confirmed using one of our PCs.
But left unanswered is the fact the regardless of how you burn the CD to be read by a Windows machine, the CD's info still indicates that it is in Mac format! Still very puzzling.
I'm guessing this is some unexplained quirk of the Mac OS.
I never use CD/DVDs (flash memory) but if you take Disk Utility and click on the disc (and not the user volume) there is at the bottom of the window shows status and type of partitioning.
As you can see in this screen shot.
http://macs.about.com/od/applications/ss/diskutilitypart_3.htm
A disc burned by Finder contains two directories, Mac OS Extended and ISO-9660, that have pointers to the same data files. Windows computers use the ISO-9660 directory and Macs use the Mac directory.
Disk Utility creates only one directory, but a Mac can read any format that Disk Utility can create.
Thanks Malcolm, that helps explain some things.
Cheers.
Burning CDs for Windows
