# UDF vs ISO--are there any gotcha's?



## Alex Ethridge (Apr 10, 2000)

I've always written my CDs and DVDs in ISO format and never tried anything else simply because I had no reason to. I ran into a situation today that required UDF.

Any reason I should be worried about readability and compatibility with other formats and operating systems (Linux, etc.) down the road some day?


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## leroys1000 (Aug 16, 2007)

UDF allows you to use your writer like a hard drive but requires a UDF
reader to read the data.
Burning ISO's does not require special reader software.


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## Rick_in_Fla (Apr 2, 2007)

You don't necessarilly need a UDF reader to read, only when using packet writing. If you try burn a data file of 2Gb or greater to a dvd you can't do it using the ISO format you must use UDF.


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## gamerbyron (Apr 9, 2007)

Magic ISO is the only program to read udf.


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## Rick_in_Fla (Apr 2, 2007)

An authored video dvd uses the UDF file system


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## Alex Ethridge (Apr 10, 2000)

I had an Acronis drive image that was 3.3 Gigabytes in size. I could not use ISO so I did it in UDF. I wonder if I might have problems with it later.


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## fairnooks (Oct 1, 2007)

I use ISO 9660+Joliet for data files up to 4 gigs in size before the rug gets pulled on me. Some older operating systems are limited to 2 gigs though.


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## jonmcc33 (Jan 26, 2008)

Alex Ethridge said:


> I've always written my CDs and DVDs in ISO format and never tried anything else simply because I had no reason to. I ran into a situation today that required UDF.
> 
> Any reason I should be worried about readability and compatibility with other formats and operating systems (Linux, etc.) down the road some day?





Alex Ethridge said:


> I had an Acronis drive image that was 3.3 Gigabytes in size. I could not use ISO so I did it in UDF. I wonder if I might have problems with it later.


No, you won't have any problems. I backup very large MKV videos to DVD+R and use the UDF format instead. I don't have a problem with it reading in any other DVD drive at all. Here's some information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Disk_Format


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## Alex Ethridge (Apr 10, 2000)

I'm wondering if I should switch to UDF for everything. After all, it's Universal Disk Format, isn't it?


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## jonmcc33 (Jan 26, 2008)

I switched only for files larger than 2GB because Nero stated that anything larger than 2GB couldn't be used for ISO format. If you aren't writing anything larger than 2GB then use ISO.


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