Top 3 Ways to Copy DVD to Hard Drive

It is common to copy DVD to hard drive to protect discs from being scratched or damaged. Since most computers don’t have a DVD drive, creating a digital DVD copy brings immediate benefits. For instance, you can directly play DVD movies on your Mac or Windows PC. You don’t need a DVD player to get the playback.

How to rip your DVD to a hard drive at a fast speed and high quality? This post shares three effective methods to make a digital copy of DVD content on your Windows or Mac hard drive. You can select your preferred DVD copying software to bypass the DVD DRM protection and create a backup for personal usage.

Part 1. Why You Should Copy DVD to Hard Drive

You may copy your DVDs to a hard drive for different needs. Generally, you need to create a digital DVD copy for protection and convenient viewing.

DVDs have been made to use for over 50 years. However, they should be kept in a dry, cool, dark place. Worse, DVDs are easy to scratch and damage due to improper preservation or mechanical breakdown.

Another main reason is that most computers no longer carry a DVD drive. So you can’t directly play DVDs on a Mac or Windows 11/10/8/7 PC. You have to read a DVD disc on a standalone DVD player. You also want to copy some meaningful homemade DVDs to MP4 videos to get easy playback on your computer or smart TV.

Part 2. Easy Way to Copy a DVD to Windows and Mac Hard Drive

If you want to copy your DVD discs to DVD Folders or ISO files, you can rely on the powerful Tipard DVD Cloner. It is mainly designed to copy a DVD to a blank disc in a 1:1 ratio. This DVD copying tool can copy DVD-9 to DVD-9, DVD-5 to DVD-5, or DVD-9 to DVD-5, based on your need. It also allows you to burn DVD folders or IOS image files to new discs. Moreover, Tipard DVD Cloner gives you three modes to copy DVDs to a hard drive with high quality, Full Copy, Main Movie, and Customize.

You can free download Tipard DVD Cloner from its official website. It supports DVD+R (W), DVD-R (W), DVD-R DL, and DVD+R DL. To copy DVD to hard drive on your Mac or Windows PC, you should use a DVD drive. You need to connect an external DVD drive if your computer doesn’t have one. When your computer reads the DVD content, you can copy it as a DVD folder or ISO file to a hard drive.

Part 3. How to Rip DVD to Hard Drive on Mac and Windows

AVAide DVD Ripper is a famous DVD copying tool that can rip DVDs to digital videos like MP4, MKV, FLV, AVI, MOV, and more. It lets you copy DVDs to hard drives on a Mac or Windows computer without losing quality. Moreover, this DVD copying software enables you to enhance the source DVD content and copy it to a higher quality. For instance, it can copy DVDs to 4K UHD or 1080p/720p HD videos.

Step 1Free download this DVD copying software and launch it. If your Mac or Windows computer is not equipped with a DVD drive, you must plug in an external drive. After that, you can click the Load DVD button in the upper-left corner to import your DVD.

Step 2When loaded, you can see the basic DVD information, such as the full title list, title, subtitle, duration, and more. Select the DVD content you like to copy and choose your preferred output format from Rip All to.

Step 3Before copying DVD to hard drive, you can click the Edit button to edit your DVD video. You can freely crop or rotate the DVD content, apply new filters, customize image and sound effects, add audio tracks or subtitles, and more.

Step 4Select a suitable destination folder on your hard drive to save the ripped DVD. Click the Rip All button to start copying DVD to hard drive. This tool also can help you copy DVD to computer.

Part 4. Copy and Convert DVD to Hard Drive Using HandBrake

HandBrake is an open-source video transcoder for macOS, Windows, and Linux. Besides converting videos, it enables you to copy Blu-rays or DVDs to your hard drive. It can copy all DVD sources that do not contain any copy protection. HandBrake lets you rip DVDs to MP4, MKV, and WebM with high quality. You can select the correct download version based on your system and free install it from the HandBrake website.

Launch HandBrake and click Open Source to load the DVD you want to copy. You need a DVD drive to read your DVD content. You are allowed to copy the entire DVD or selected titles/chapters. Select the output format from the Summary tab. Click the Browse button to choose the destination folder. After that, click Start Encode to copy DVD to hard drive.

Part 5. FAQs of Copying DVD to Hard Drive

Is it illegal to copy DVD to hard drive?

It is legal to copy or rip homemade DVD discs. You should not copy commercial DVDs that are protected.

Can I copy a DVD to Mac hard drive using Disk Utility?

Yes. Disk Utility allows you to copy a non-copyright DVD to your Mac hard drive. You can use an external DVD drive to load your disc. Open Disk Utility, click your DVD name under the External header, go to the File menu, choose New Image, and then select Image from [DVD name]. Customize the format and encryption, and click Save to copy the DVD to Mac hard drive using Disk Utility.

Can VLC rip a DVD to a hard drive?

Yes. VLC Media Player can play and rip DVDs. You can open VLC, click the Media menu, and choose the Open Disc option to view your DVD. When copying a homemade DVD in VLC, click the File menu and use its Convert/Save feature.

By Bryan Simmonds on May 06, 2023