How to Convert a Clone CD Image to ISO
April 26th, 2008
Just ran into a time consuming hiccup trying to work with a Clone CD Image. I hope the rather detailed explanation below will help someone else deal with a Clone CD Image faster on his Mac.
I'd downloaded a 600 MB disk image to use with Parallels. The disk image came wrapped in a .rar format.
Unpacking the .rar file was very difficult.
- StuffitExpander crashed
- Forklift couldn't handle it
- Archive Utility just wanted to compress it further.
Finally I was able to unpack it with IAarchiver, slowly but certainly.
After unpacking, I was offered a directory with three files in it:
- image.img
- image.ccd
- image.sub
Clone CD img ccd sub files
I had no idea Windows used the archaic Mac .img format. It turns out that Windows doesn't. What I'd inadvertently downloaded is what is known as a Clone CD image. I was unable to mount it on my Macbook. No known solution or software for Mac OS X can handle Clone CD images. BIN and CUE files are no problem, but CCD files - there's nothing out there.
- DiskUtility wouldn't do it (error mounting the disk)
- Toast 6 wouldn't do it (although Toast did make me a coaster with the file when I changed the .img extension to .bin and used Copy Disk Image)
- Burn also made me a coaster, even after I followed elaborate instructions on renaming files and creating a fake .cue file
- Firestarter was a non-starter. It didn't want to use my DVD burner at all. In any case, Firestarter seemed confused about what to do with the files.
If one had a Windows computer with a CD burner nearby, the logical step would be to burn the .rar file to CD, move it to the Windows computer, mount it with the freeware Virtual Clone Drive (download) and burn it as a disk and bring it back to the Mac as a ready made CD. I didn't have a Windows computer handy - and it seemed pitiful that my Macbook with 10.5.2 couldn't handle a foreign disk image format.
I managed to convert the Clone CD .img / .ccd files to an .ISO file in the end though.
How?
Command line. Those command line addicts over on the Linux/BSD side of the fence have written a lovely utility called ccd2iso. It's a single command.
Unfortunately, ccd2iso is not included out of the box in Mac OS X.
You have to install MacPorts or DarwinPorts (ccd2iso might also be in Fink). If you haven't got MacPorts installed it's a bit of a drama.
First, you need Xcode. Xcode is the developer toolset.
If you install MacPorts without Xcode, you will be able to install it, but when you try to update you will get nothing. With DarwinPorts you will get this error:
sudo port -d selfupdate
DEBUG: Error installing new MacPorts base:
shell command "cd /opt/local/var/macports/sources/
rsync.macports.org/release/base &&
./configure --prefix=/opt/local --with-install-user=root
--with-install-group=admin
--with-tclpackage=/Library/Tcl && make && make install"
returned error 1
Command output: checking build system type...
i686-apple-darwin9.2.2
checking host system type... i686-apple-darwin9.2.2
checking target system type... i686-apple-darwin9.2.2
checking for sw_vers... sw_vers
checking Mac OS X version... 10.5.2
checking MacPorts version... 1.6.0
checking for gcc... no
checking for cc... no
checking for cl.exe... no
configure: error: no acceptable C compiler found in $PATH
See `config.log' for more details.
So install Xcode as you were supposed to (I have Xcode installed on another Mac and thought I had it on the Macbook as well).
Once you have Xcode installed, first you need to bring MacPorts | DarwinPorts up to date:
sudo port -d selfupdate
This takes a little while and generates a lot of messages: you are installing about a one thousand open source components, including Gnome, KDE and X11. I ran the updater a second time just to make sure that everything was caught the first time.
You know you're okay when you get this message:
The MacPorts installation is not outdated and so was not updated
DEBUG: Setting ownership to root
selfupdate done!
The next step is installing ccd2iso.
sudo port install ccd2iso
And to convert the rogue .img to .iso:
ccd2iso image.img mycd.iso
The conversion takes about ten minutes with a 600 MB file, but I can confirm that my disk image works as a perfect self-contained ISO. The .iso can be mounted in the Finder with DiskImageMounter and can be used directly in Parallels.
ccd2iso finished ISO
If you've already got Xcode and MacPorts installed, you're golden. You are two minutes away from converting your Clone CD image to ISO. If not, you have a 1 GB download ahead of you (Xcode) and some tinkering.
I wanted to have access to MacPorts on this computer in any case. An open source drag and drop converter for the Clone CD format for Mac OS X might be nice though. It would have been faster!
More discussion
By Alec
Tags: open source, os x
27 comments on “How to Convert a Clone CD Image to ISO”
01
having trouble installing macports on leopard.
02
Yes, Bub, it can be a bit tricky getting Macports to run. You have to successfully install the latest Xcode to install Macports. If you’ve got Xcode installed, then try DarwinPorts. It’s the same code in the end and DarwinPorts 1.5 will self-update to latest Macports.
Good luck.
03
Thanks for this! It helped me out!
04
i figured it out. thanks for posting this, it helped me as well.
05
You guys are most welcome! It’s a bit tough straight off the bat. I’m glad my experience was able to help you.
06
already had macports installed so it took literally more time to read the post than to update and convert the (same) image. took about a two minutes to convert to an image that works real nice with toast.
thanks for the post!
07
thanks man it worked perfectly
08
THANK YOU. I would have never known this, I have almost exactly the same problem. I love macports and I had it already (for irssi) so it was easy to get this working, and now i’m happily burning my image
09
Hey, I could mount the img file using Toast 8:
Copy -> Disc Image merge
Select ISO file…
And click mount
10
Hello Gabriel,
That’s cool that Clone CD Images can be mounted sometimes in Toast 8. Thanks for the instructions.
My last copy of Toast is version 6. Roxio update fees are outrageous and Toast is getting too complicated for my taste. Nice to see that they have at least one forward thinking developer still on staff. The last Toast I really liked was version 5.
These days, I’m doing my burning with Burn and Disco.
11
Hey, I’m absolutely no command-line-guy, but I tried it anyway. I installed xcode, x11, macports and executed the “configure” command of ccd2iso - apparently successfully (only after trying the normal procedure and not getting anything to work, so I just tried executing all unix files that I found in the ccd2iso folder).
My Problem: When I type in the update or the install command, terminal first asks for a password and then tells me:
tibots-imac:~ tibot$ sudo port -d selfupdate
sudo: port: command not found
Now, I guess my knowledge of these kind of operations is simply not sophisticated enough, but I would be very happy to learn it and to get things working.
Possibly important to know: I use a German 10.5 with an early 2008 imac.
12
Hello Tibot,
I had to try DarwinPorts msyelf (an older version of MacPorts) in order to get the update to MacPorts to work. I thought it was just my computer.
Give that a try and let us know how it goes.
13
Hey alec,
thanks for the effort, but after a bit of additional research, I found out that there were a lot more things to consider to get the ccd2iso working.
A rather noobe mistake :-), just as I thought.
I’ll go for a clean restart and come back if things are still not working afterwards.
Cheers,
Tibot
14
Hello Gabriel,
thank you very much! I don’t see the point in downloading a 1.1 GB piece of software (Xcode) if it could also be managed in Toast with a few clicks…
15
Hello Max,
Good point. On the other hand, Xcode allows all kinds of other wonderful debugging modes and experimental software to run. So if you are doing cutting edge kind of work on your Mac, you will probably have to install Xcode sooner or later.
And unlike Toast ($100), Xcode is free.
16
Hello all-
If you use Leopard and Xcode 3, expect some trouble with CHUD tools during the install. There are several solutions on the Apple site for this problem, so I will not detail them all here!
Getting MacPorts up and running on Leopard is tricky too, due to how the PATH environment is now set up. You need to put a file in /etc/paths.d/ that contains the path setting for the ‘port’ command so the shell can find it correctly.
After all this was done, I was able to get ccd2iso up and running right away!
17
Hello Cliff,
I ran into some of the problems you described when first trying to install Macports on Leopard. When I installed the older version (Darwinports), Darwinports managed to update itself automatically - without having to handconfigure paths.
I had no problems with my own Xcode install.
Glad to hear you were able to get it all running as well!
18
After installing Xcode and Macports (OSX 10.5.3), this helped to get around the “sudo: port: command not found” error when I entered “sudo port -d selfupdate”
http://bparanj.blogspot.com/2007/03/sudo-port-command-not-found.html
but now I’ve hit a different snag. When I enter “ccd2iso image.img mycd.iso” I get the error message “cannot open source file for reading!”
Help anyone?
19
Hey,
I’ve installed xcode3.0 and I’ve entered all but one command line successfully. My problem is that, when I enter ccd2iso image.img mycd.iso , it says this Error: cannot open source file for reading! Could someone help?
20
Hello Tom,
Did you get the path right? Probably, as otherwise the error would be “image.img not found”.
This is strange. I had absolutely no problems converting my .img file once I got as far as working version of MacPorts.
If your image.img file was corrupted along the way or incorrectly uncompressed at any point, then you would get such an error. Any way to download again or try another source for the same file?
21
Yeah, thank you - that’s what I ended up doing. I just found another set of files (in iso) for the same program! It would have been satisfying to get ccd2iso to work, but it was time to cut my losses.
22
Hello Tom,
ccd2iso does work. Beautifully. But getting an obscure Windows disk image format to work on a Mac - there’s a lot of steps. Any of them wrong, and you don’t get your disk.
When you find another ccd disk, give your install another try.
23
So…this is all very much out of my depth and I’m sure I’m missing something obvious, but…
…when I try to ‘install ccd2iso,’ I get the following message:
Error: Unable to execute port: can’t create directory “/opt/local/var/macports/build”: permission denied
I went around this by manually creating a folder called “build” and putting it in that macports folder, which required me to put in a password to authenticate. I tried again:
Error: Unable to execute port: ln: /opt/local/var/macports/sources/rsync.macports.org/release/ports/sysutils/ccd2iso/work: Permission denied
How do I convince the terminal that I do, in fact, give it permission to do the things I’m telling it to do? It’s not asking me for a password or anything, it’s just saying “no.” What’s the deal?
24
Actually, got that worked out…but can’t seem to get ccd2iso running. It’s an “Unrecognized action.”
> ccd2iso image.img mycd.iso
Unrecognized action “ccd2iso”
25
Hello Devin,
1. Are you trying the commands with sudo also:
sudo install ccd2iso2. You seem to be having some issues with paths and permissions. Try repairing permissions in Disk Utility.
Otherwise, it looks like the set up on your Mac may be non-standard.
Non-standard paths and such can occur from repeatedly doing upgrades (10.2 > 10.3 > 10.4 > 10.5) instead of archive and install or fresh installs.
I solved all of these sorts of issues on my own computer by starting with a fresh install of 10.5 and adding all my own files and applications afterwards. It took some time but a lot of annoying issues went away.
26
Hey Alec,
Well, it had also said that sudo (and port) were unrecognized commands. For instance, sudo install ccd2iso gave me an unrec. command on sudo, but just “install ccd2iso” seemed to install it fine. Was odd.
I did figure out the permission fixing, though. Was just me being silly and trying to write while it was all still read-only. >.>;
Thanks for the assist, but I think I’m going to get around this in another way. Command line business seems to be a little too far out of my range. Appreciate the quick response, though! ^.^
27
Hello Devin,
Keep practicing with the command line. Eventually it gets easier. This was an ambitious project with which to start exploring the command line.
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