DVD backup on Linux

I was finally able to backup a DVD that I bought on a DVD+R and a DVD-R. I had been planning on doing this for a few days, but did get down to it. So yesterday, I did a little search about DVD writing in Linux and how to copy the data from a DVD to your HDD. Here is how I did it:

1. Copy data from the DVD using the following command and you will get an iso image for the DVD.
   $ dd if=/dev/hdd of=/data-disk/dvdimage.iso


2. To write the iso image to the DVD-R or DVD+R, use the command
   growisofs -dvd-compat -dvd-video -Z /dev/hdd=/data-disk/dvdimage.iso

You will get an exact copy of the original DVD. The DVD I copied did not have a region lock, so I don't know what happens if your hardware is not for the same region. I will try doing that if I can get hold of some other region's DVD (..he he ..just for fun).

I didn't get the max speed from the writer even though it can support it 8x. The writing speed also depends on the media used, which may not be fully supported by your hardware. To check media support use the following command:
dvd+rw-mediainfo /dev/hdd

Above /dev/hdd should be changed to your dvd drive's device listing. And /data-disk/ is a partition (25GB) on my HDD for huge data storage. For copying a single sided DVD you should have more than 4.2GB of space. For double sided its around 8.3GB. For the backup process, I used my NEC ND2510a Dual Layer DVD writer.