Member Avatar for freesoft_2000

Hi everyone,

I need to ask a very general question about windows.

You see if i use a cd writer and burn some files to a CD on a windows
pc will i be able to access the same data on the CD on a Mac or Linux box?

I don't really have a linux or mac box to test this out but i hope someone that has some experience in this could share with me whether the dat will still be accessible.

Hoping to hear from someone

Yours Sincerely

Richard West

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by markdean

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Short answer: yes — a data CD burned on Windows will normally be readable on macOS and Linux if it uses a standard cross‑platform filesystem and the session is finalized. asked the original question; was right that Linux can read Windows‑burned discs, but his post mixed a couple of names (CIFS is a network/filesharing protocol, not a CD format).

Common filesystems and what they mean: ISO 9660 is the base standard (very widely supported but legacy filename limits), Joliet (Microsoft extension) adds long Unicode names, Rock Ridge (Unix extension) preserves POSIX metadata like permissions and symlinks, and UDF (Universal Disk Format) is used for packet‑writing and DVDs and is well supported on modern OSes. Macs also support HFS/HFS+ as a native format, but Windows needs extra drivers to read HFS/HFS+ discs.

Practical guidance: burn as ISO 9660 with Joliet (and Rock Ridge if the burner/tool offers it and Unix metadata is needed) for the broadest compatibility. Use UDF when packet writing or very large files require it, but be aware very old players/drives may not read UDF. Finalize/close the session so other machines can mount the disc. Prefer CD‑R for wider device support; CD‑RW compatibility is more variable. To preserve Unix permissions/symlinks, archive with tar (tar.gz) and burn the archive instead of raw files; for simple cross‑platform sharing a ZIP is often the easiest option.

Troubleshooting tips: if a disc won’t mount, try another drive, check whether the session was closed, and inspect the filesystem type with the OS disk utility or mount tools. Garbled filenames usually point to a filename‑encoding or filesystem mismatch — reburn with Joliet or UDF to fix that.

Member Avatar for markdean

On Linux yes, you can read CDs created under Windows in any of the main CD formats which are ISO9660, CIFS and Juliet formats and I'm pretty sure Mac can do the same. Linux can also read FAT/FAT32/NTFS as well.

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