Nero Disk Image Automation

Introduction

Being a fan of Nero CD/DVD/HD-DVD/Blu-Ray burning software, I thought I would share some automation tips for creating ISO disk images. Not that these tips are anything outstanding but they might serve as a useful bootstrap for you.

Getting Started

Start by downloading the Nero SDK (zip file) and crack open the NeroCMDUser.pdf file found in the NeroCMD/Doc directory of the SDK download. Chapter #5 is where you’ll be spending most of your time learning about the multitude of command line options.

Usage

Here is an example of a Windows command line that works really well when creating ISO images:

"D:\Nero 7\core\NeroCmd.exe" --write --drivename "Image Recorder"
--output_image "F:\unfiled\aeonscope.iso" --real --iso "Aeonscope Code" --create_iso_fs
--relax_joliet --verify --media_type "media_cdrom" --recursive --publisher "Aeonscope"
--data_preparer "Aeonscope" "D:\aeonscope\src\*"

This will yield the following output in your command window:

Tips

There are a few things I want to point out from the command line used above:

• Make sure to enclose your paths in quotes to deal with cases where spaces are in your paths.
• The –drivename option is what tells Nero to burn your data to an ISO image. You can always replace this with the location of your actual CD/DVD burner if you need to. If you do, make sure to remove the additional ISO options.
• It is important that you always use the –real option regardless of whether you are burning ISO or actual disks. Otherwise, the operation is just a simulation.
• At the moment, I only use the “media_cdrom” and “media_dvd_rom” media type options to create CD and DVD disk respectively, but there is a whole slew of options that might also work for you:
  
• The –recursive option is good to have turned on if the source path(s) you provide Nero have sub-directories, etc.
• The last part of the command line is reserved for source file/directory information: "D:\aeonscope\src\*". Notice the star (*) at the end of the path, you need this when pointing to directory paths, otherwise Nero will think you are pointing to a file instead. In my example, I only show one source path being used but you can append multiple source paths at the end of your command line should you need to pull data from multiple locations when creating your disk image.

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