What Is an ISO 9660 Disc?

ISO 9660 is a standard for cross-platform use on Windows PCs as well as Macintosh, Unix, Linux, or DOS operating systems.

Reasons to Make an ISO 9660 Disc

•	To record a cross-platform CD containing sections readable by different operating systems, including Mac OS, DOS, UNIX, and Windows.

•	To record multisession CDs where all sessions are mounted as a single volume (in contrast to HFS/HFS+ multivolume where each session appears as a separate volume).

For information on incremental backups (writing to the CD only data that has changed since the last session), see Overview of Making a Custom Hybrid Disc.

When to Choose a Different Format

•	Because ISO 9660 does not support custom icons or saved directory settings (for example, View as Icons), it is not ideal for CDs intended only for Macintosh computer users. For Macintosh-only CDs, use Data or Mac Volume format.

•	For professional-quality cross-platform CDs, use Custom Hybrid format.

See Also:

Overview of Making an ISO 9660 Cross-platform Disc