You are afraid of losing your precious DVDs and that’s why you decided to make exact copies of all the discs you care about. You’ve tried copying the contents to your hard drive and then burning them onto new floppy disks, but the result is not what you wanted. You want real clones and not DVDs with the same files inside, which very often don’t work (in the case of movies and games, for example).
That’s why today I’m here to tell you how to duplicate a DVD using some special programs available for both Windows and Mac. These are both free and paid resources, easy to use and all of them very popular. With these tools you can create images of your diskettes and transfer them to other DVDs to make exact copies of the original disc. You can do this with movies, games, photos etc.
If you’re interested (and under the circumstances I’m assuming you are), what do you say we put the talk aside and get started right away? Yes? Great. So, sit down comfortably in front of your trusty PC and start immediately to concentrate on reading everything reported below. I’m sure that at the end you’ll be happy and satisfied with what you’ve learned and that, even, in case of need you’ll be ready to provide useful advice on what to do to all your friends. Good “work”!
DVDFab DVD Copy (Windows/MacOS)
The first among the resources to duplicate a DVD that I want to talk about is DVDFab DVD Copy. It is a software that, as you can guess from its name, allows you to copy DVDs to any other type of diskette or, again, to copy them in the form of ISO images to be stored on the hard disk, all in a rather fast way and without affecting the original quality of the discs. It is available for both Windows and Mac but unfortunately it is not free. However, you can download a trial version at no cost (the one I used to write this step).
To use it, first go to the program’s website, click on the name of the operating system in use on your computer below and then click on the Try It Free button to download the software to your computer.
Once the download is complete, if you are using Windows, open the .exe file and click on Yes. Then click on the Install button in the window that appears on the desktop and, once the setup is complete, click on Run to start the program.
If you are using a Mac, open the downloaded .pkg file and follow the simple on-screen installation wizard. Then start DVDFab DVD Copy by clicking on its icon that has been added to Launchpad.
Now that you see the program’s window on the screen, indicate that you want to use the trial version of DVDFab DVD Copy and then insert the disk you want to duplicate into your computer and wait a few moments for the program to detect it automatically. If it doesn’t, click the “+” button in the center of the window and select the disc “manually”.
Now, select the Copy button at the top of the screen, choose Clone/Master from the Copy Mode menu that appears, press the Start button at the bottom right corner and wait for the process of copying the floppy disk to a new DVD to start and finish.
During this step, once the DVD content has been copied, the disc will be ejected from the computer and you’ll be asked to insert a new blank one to complete the procedure.
WinX DVD Ripper Platinum (Windows/MacOS)
WinX DVD Ripper Platinum is one of the best programs to copy and rip DVDs. It is compatible with all types of media, including the latest commercial DVDs, 99-title DVDs and partially damaged media, and lets you get videos in various formats: MP4, MKV, FLV, H.264, HEVC, MP3, etc. to play back on the most diverse devices: smartphones, tablets, TVs, and so on. It also lets you make 1:1 copies of DVDs, generate ISO files and edit the contents of DVDs by splitting/cutting scenes and subtitle tracks.
Available for both Windows and macOS, WinX DVD Ripper Platinum presents, among its main strengths, support for 3-level hardware acceleration (based on Intel QSV and NVIDIA NVENC/CUDA technologies) and the High Quality Engine, thanks to which it manages to copy an entire DVD without quality loss in about 5 minutes (where other software takes up to 1 hour).
To try WinX DVD Ripper Platinum for free, go to the program’s official website and click the Download button. After the download is complete, if you are using a Windows PC, open the .exe file and click the Yes, OK and Next buttons. Then check the box next to I accept the agreement and finish the setup by clicking the Next (four times), Install and Finish buttons.
If you use a Mac, instead, open the .dmg file and drag the program icon to the Applications folder of macOS. How much easier could it be?
Once the installation is complete, to copy a DVD with WinX DVD Ripper Platinum, insert the disc into the drive connected to your computer and start the program. Then decide whether to use the trial version of WinX DVD Ripper Platinum by clicking the Remind Me Later button, or activate the program by purchasing a license and entering the license code.
Next, click the Options button at the top of the screen and set the default language of the audio to be extracted from the DVD to Italian (or another language of your interest) using the drop-down list provided. After that, click the Disc button in the upper left corner, select the drive of the DVD player connected to your computer from the drop-down list and click the OK button to start analyzing the contents of the disc.
Once the analysis is complete, you must use the window that is proposed to you to choose the type of backup you want to make, selecting a category from the left sidebar and a conversion profile from the right panel.
In General profiles you can find generic conversion profiles, such as MP4, AVI, iPhone and Android; in DVD Backup you can find options to copy DVD without conversion, having the opportunity to choose between 1:1 copy to folder, to ISO file or copy only the main title; in Device profiles you can find a set of profiles dedicated to Apple, Android, Microsoft and Sony devices; in Web video profiles you can find profiles to create videos optimized for Web portals such as YouTube, Facebook and Vimeo, while in Common Video / Music Profile you can find generic video and audio profiles.
Once you have selected the profile you are interested in, use the adjacent adjustment bar to specify the conversion quality (LQ for low quality and high speed; middle position for an optimal balance between conversion speed and final quality or HQ for high quality and longer conversion time) and click the OK button, in the lower right corner, to confirm.
At this point, put a check mark next to the DVD titles you want to include in your backup, use the adjacent drop-down menus to choose the audio track and subtitles you want to preserve and, if you want, click the Edit button corresponding to each title to edit its video by cutting/dividing it or changing its subtitles.
To conclude, make sure that the checkmark is next to the Intel, nVIDIA and Use High Quality Engine options (to take advantage of all hardware acceleration technologies and the High Quality Engine of WinX DVD Ripper Platinum), press the Browse button (bottom) to select the folder where you want to save the output files and click the Run button, bottom right, to start creating the backup of your DVD.
The trial version of WinX DVD Ripper Platinum converts a maximum of 5 minutes per video. To get rid of this limitation, you need to purchase the full version of the program, which costs $29.95.
ImgBurn (Windows)
ImgBurn is one of the most popular and appreciated DVD and CD burning programs for Windows operating systems in the world. It also allows you to create image files of any type of floppy disk and it’s completely free. I recommend you to give it a try right now!
To use it, go to the ImgBurn website and click on the Mirror 7 – Provided by ImgBurn link (if the link doesn’t work, select another one) to download the software to your computer.
Once the download is complete, open the downloaded .exe file and in the window that appears, click first on Yes and then on Next. Then accept the terms of use of the program by putting a check mark next to I accept the terms of the license agreement, and click on Next for five consecutive times and then on Yes and Finish to finish the installation process and start ImgBurn. If during the setup process you are also offered to install additional programs (e.g. Opera), please decline the offer by removing the checkmark from the corresponding items.
ImgBurn is in English but you can easily translate it into Italian by connecting again to the download page of the program and clicking on the Click here link that you will find next to the word Italian, under the ImgBurn Translation Language Files section of the site.
Once the download is complete, extract the downloaded compressed archive to any location on your computer and insert the italian.lng file it contains into the C:Program FilesImgBurnLanguages folder. Now, start ImgBurn by double-clicking on its shortcut that has been added to your desktop and the program will be automatically translated into Italian.
That’s it, now you can perform the first of the two steps needed to duplicate a DVD with ImgBurn, that is, creating an image of the disc to be duplicated. After inserting the DVD to be “cloned” into your PC’s DVD player, select the Create a disc image option from the main window of the software.
Once this is done, first click on the small folder icon located under Destination to choose the folder where you want to save the ISO image of your floppy disk, and then click on the nice icon with the DVD and the sheet located at the bottom left to start creating the DVD image.
Once the ISO image is created, you can remove the original diskette from your computer’s DVD drive and replace it with a blank DVD, the one you are going to burn the exact copy of the diskette you saved the ISO image on.
Then go back to the main ImgBurn screen and click on the Burn an image item. In the window that opens, click on the small folder icon located next to the Select a file item at the top left corner, select the ISO image you created earlier and click on the nice icon with the DVD and the paper at the bottom left corner to start burning your duplicate DVD.
At the end of the procedure, a check of the DVD’s content will be started to, in fact, check for errors. If everything goes smoothly, you can also delete the ISO file created earlier and enjoy your new “cloned” DVD.
Ashampoo Burning Studio FREE (Windows)
None of the resources I have mentioned in the previous lines have convinced you in a particular way and you are still looking for a tool that will allow you to duplicate your DVDs? Then I can’t help but suggest that you try Ashampoo Burning Studio. This is a well-known free program for Windows operating systems that allows you to create and copy DVDs (as well as CDs and Blu-Rays). The only thing you need to be aware of is that you need to register an account to use it.
To use it, first of all, go to the program’s website and click on the Download button on the right. Then click on the Download Now button on the new page to download the program to your computer.
After the download is complete, open the .exe file and click Run and Yes. Then click on the I accept and proceed button, then on Get a free activation key, type your email address in the default browser window that appears on the screen and click on the Request key for full version button.
Now, access your email account, open the message sent to you by Ashampoo and confirm your email address by clicking on the Click here button. Fill in the form attached to the new page by typing the information requested (if you prefer, you can also not provide any information by pressing the NOT NOW button).
Then copy the license key that is provided, paste it into the Ashampoo Burning Studio FREE window that was open on the desktop and click Activate Now! Then click on Next twice in a row and finish the setup by clicking on Finish.
Now that you see the main window of the program on your desktop, click on the Copy Disc item on the left, insert the diskette you want to burn into your computer, wait a few moments for the program to detect it and click Next.
When the process is finished, click on the Next button, eject the disk currently in your computer and insert the empty diskette, then click on the Write button in the lower right corner and wait for the process of writing a new disk to start and finish.
WinBurner (Windows)
Another great tool you have to help you duplicate a DVD is WinBurner. This is completely free software for Windows operating systems that allows you to create bootable or multisession discs, high quality audio CDs, video DVDs and even create and burn ISO images. It is lightweight, very easy to use and is also available in a portable version (so you can use it without installing anything on your PC). Try it to believe it!
To use it, first go to the download page of the program and click on the green WinBurner v.1.1 button to download the portal version of the program to your computer.
Once the download is complete, extract the ZIP archive to any location on your PC and run the .exe file it contains. Click on Run and you will see the main WinBurner window.
Now, click on the Create ISO from CD/DVD button, insert the floppy disk you want to create a copy of into your computer’s CD/DVD drive and select the path to the burner from the drop-down menu shown.
Then click on the Create the iso file button, indicate the name you want to assign to the ISO image you are going to create and the path for saving it and click on the Create button.
When the process is complete, eject the DVD from your computer, insert a blank floppy disk and burn the ISO file you created onto it. Click the Write ISO to CD/DVD button on the main screen of the program to access the disc writing tool.
Finally, select the correct drive from the drop-down menu provided, click the Select the iso file button, select the ISO file you created earlier and then press the Burn button. That’s it!
Burn (macOS)
If you have a Mac and you are looking for a valid alternative to the resource I told you about at the beginning of this guide, I strongly invite you to try Burn. It is a specific application for the computers of the “bitten apple” company that allows you to perform various burning and video transformation operations, including the one in question. It also has a rather simple and intuitive user interface and is totally free.
To be able to use it, first of all connect to the download page of the program and click on the Download Burn entry on the right. Then wait a few moments for the software download to start and finish.
Once the download is complete, extract the ZIP file to any location on macOS and drag the Burn icon inside to the Applications folder on your Mac. Then right-click on it and select Open twice in a row to start the program but bypass the restrictions imposed by Apple on unauthorized developers.
Now that you see the program window on your desktop, click on the Copy tab at the top, click on the Scan… button at the bottom, insert the DVD you want to duplicate into the player connected to your Mac and select it using the additional program window that appears on the screen.
Now, click on the Burn button at the bottom right and then on the button attached to the additional window that appears on the screen and wait for the DVD you had inserted into your computer to be copied.
When the process is finished, eject the DVD you just copied to your computer and insert a blank DVD into your Mac’s drive, go to Burn’s Copy tab again, click the Open… button in the bottom right corner and select the ISO file of the previously copied diskette that was saved in the Temporary Burn folder in My Documents.
Then click the Burn button, adjust the speed options using the drop-down menu (if you don’t have any special needs, you can leave everything as it is) and click the Burn button again to start writing the disc.
When the process is complete, you will be notified on screen and the burned disc will be ejected automatically from your Mac. Easier than that?