As laptops no longer incorporate DVD drives as a standard feature, transferring content from DVDs to USB flash drives has become a pressing concern for many. This is especially true if you want to enjoy your favorite movies or music CDs without any restrictions on time and space.

Luckily, there are several free solutions available to assist with this task. Now, let's read on and learn the step-by-step guide on how to copy DVD to a USB flash drive with or without a computer effortlessly.

How to Transfer DVD to USB Flash Drive

How to Copy DVD to USB Flash Drive Directly? 

Do you need the Windows 10 USB DVD download tool to put DVD movies on the USB memory stick? Not necessarily. There is the simplest copy-and-paste method to transfer DVD to USB flash drive. The requirement is a DVD drive on your laptop, desktop, or an external DVD drive that can run your DVDs, and a USB flash drive.

Step 1: Insert your DVD into your drive and the USB stick into any one of your USB ports.

Step 2: Click the active DVD drive on your computer. Then select and copy all or desired DVD contents and files like ISO images and video_ts folders. 

Step 3: Open your USB Stick and paste DVD files onto the USB flash drive.

One more word, how to copy a CD to a flash drive? Similarly, just follow the above steps.

How to Transfer DVD to USB Flash Drive Directory

NOTE! While it may seem simple to copy a DVD to a USB drive via copy and paste methods, playback issues can arise. Commercial video DVDs' raw file structures, with multiple directories and VOB, IFO, and BUP files, can't be directly copied and played, as some TVs and media players may not support them.
 
Furthermore, DVDs often employ various encryption methods, preventing direct ripping of copy-protected DVDs to other storage devices, including USB drives.
 
In such situations, you'll need a professional DVD to USB converter that can rip DVDs, especially for copy-protected ones, into a digital formats with smaller size. Then you can just transfer the ripped DVD video to your USB flash drive to play on Smart TV, laptop, etc.

How to Copy a DVD to a Flash Drive with Best DVD Ripper

For the question of "How do I transfer DVD movies to a USB flash memory stick" on Reddit, there are recommendations like Handbrake, MakeMKV, and VLC. However, it's crucial to note that Handbrake and VLC intrinsically do not support ripping DVDs that bear copy protections. While MakeMKV does support protections like AACS, CSS, and region codes, it falls short for some higher level protections and exclusively supports the MKV output format.

Thus, if you need a more powerful tool that supports most copy protections, even for the latest discs, and demands a wider range of output formats, we recommend DVDFab DVD Ripper. This is a professional DVD to USB converter tool for Windows 10/11/8.1/8/7 and macOS 10.10 - 14.x with advanced DVD ripping featrues and user-friendly interface.

DVDFab DVD Ripper

DVDFab DVD Ripper

With this DVD to USB Converter, you can rip any copy-protected DVDs to MP4, MKV, AVI, and other 1000+ video and audio formats in less than 5 minutes. No matter you want to copy DVD to USB drive in lossless MKV. Passthrough video or in smaller MP4 file, DVDFab can cover all your needs. 

Key Features of this best DVD to USB converter:

  • Supports newly-released encrypted DVDs with APS, Uops, CSS, RC, RCE, DADC, Sony ArccOS, CPRM, CPPM, Disney X-Project, and more
  • Rip DVD to 260+ preset output devices such as iPhone, Samsung, Huawei. 
  • Edit videos with ample and stunning tools to make videos personalized
  • Support batch DVD to USB conversion at GPU H/W accelerated speed
  • Convert DVD Subtitles to SRT File via OCR Technology
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DVDFab DVD Ripper also offers a lifetime-free but simplified version - DVDFab HD Decrypter - that can copy most encrypted DVD and Blu-rays to USB drive in MP4&MKV format only. Both versions are installed in one DVDFab package for your easy use.

How to Transfer DVD to USB with DVDFab DVD Ripper on Windows and Mac?

Step 1: Download and install this Free DVD to USB converter on your computer, Windows or Mac.

Step 2: Open DVDFab 13 and opt for the Ripper module, insert the DVD into the drive, insert the USB into the port, then let DVDFab access the disc from your drive automatically. 

How to Copy a DVD to a USB Flash Drive

Step 3: Navigate to the profile library via the "Choose Other Profile" option. There are two ways to select the output format. One is to click "Format" to choose your preferred video format. Here, we recommend you to convert DVD to MP4 format as it's a more general format with wide compatibility, excellent quality, and small file size.

How to Copy a DVD to a USB Flash Drive

Moreover, if you want to copy DVD to USB to play on your TV but are unsure about which format to choose, you can click "Device" and select the TV device you want to play it on, such as LG, Samsung, PS5/4, Xbox One, etc. DVDFab will automatically match the most appropriate output format for you.

How to Copy a DVD to a USB Flash Drive

Step 4: Customize you DVD video by selecting audio tracks and subtitles, or adding external subtitle. The built-in DVD editing software allows you to crop, trim, merge video, add watermarks and subtitles, and even adjust video color as you like.

How to Copy a DVD to a USB Flash Drive

Step 5: Finally, click the "Folder" button at the output selection box to choose your USB stick as the output destination. Click the "Start" button to start copying the DVD to the selected USB stick.

How to Copy a DVD to a USB Flash Drive

How to Copy DVD to Flash Drive with Free DVD to USB Converter

If you are trying to rip homemade DVDs and don't need a lot of advanced settings, then the free Free DVD to USB Converter will suffice. As a powerful and open source program, HandBrake is a popular choice for many users. HandBrake supports converting DVDs and video files to MP4, MKV and WebM, simplifying the process of transferring DVDs to USB drives and enabling users to access them on different devices without the need for a physical disc.

Features of HandBrake Free DVD to USB Converter:

  • Equipped with batch encoding and video preview to improve conversion efficiency
  • Built-in presets make it easy to optimize video files for specific devices
  • Supports a wide range of customizable settings, such as adjusting frame rate, subtitle, and bitrate
  • Available for macOS, Windows and Linux and is regularly updated by the community

Cons of HandBrake Free DVD to USB Converter:

  • To handle encrypted DVDs, you'll need add-ons like libdvdcss, which complicates the process
  • Despite the simplicity of the interface, its advanced settings can be overwhelming for new users

How to rip DVD to USB with HandBrake free DVD to USB converter?

Step 1: Get HandBrake and install it

  • If your DVD is encrypted, you can install libdvdcss on Windows by putting the libdvdcss.dll file in the HandBrake installation directory.
  • For Mac users, libdvdcss can be installed with Homebrew using the command brew install libdvdcss.

Step 2: Click Open Source in HandBrake and select the DVD drive. When loading is done, HandBrake displays a list of titles on the DVD, use the drop-down menu to select the title you want to rip.

Rip DVD to USB with free DVD to USB converter

Step 3: In the Presets panel, select an output format and preset that matches the desired quality and device. MP4 is usually the more compatible format. You can also adjust options for quality, resolution, audio tracks, etc.

rip DVD to USB with free DVD to USB converter

Step 4: Click Start Encode to begin the ripping process. Finally, drag the converted files to the USB drive.

How to Transfer DVD to USB without Computer

Transferring DVD to USB using a DVD ripper software is quite straightforward. But what if you don't have access to a computer or prefer an offline method? Luckily, there are standalone devices and services that can help you transfer DVD to USB without computer. Here's a table of three offline DVD to USB Transfer Services next. These services offer convenience by doing all the work for you - from extracting content from DVDs to transferring them onto a USB stick.

  CVS Photo Forever Studios Walmart Photo
Accepted Media YesDVD, CVS YesDVD, DVD, CD, VCD, MiniDVD DVD, CD, Data & Mini Disks, SD/CF/Micro cards, USB drives YesDVD, Walmart DVD, DVD, VCD, CVCD
What You Get DVD/Blu-ray/USB + digital copy in MemoryCloud (60 days access) Forever Safe USB or Cloud link or DVD set Digital copy in MemoryCloud (60 days access) + optional DVDs/USBs
Price $25.99/DVD(90 mins), $33.99/Blu-ray(90 mins), $34.99/USB $15/DVD digitizing service and additional $29 per USB drive $12.96 for first 30 min digital copy; extra: $3.96/DVD,$12.96/USB
How It Works Create order->Bring media->Wait->Receive copies Enter quantity->Send media->Wait->Receive copies Create order online -> send media -> wait -> receive copies
Note Please note that DVD to USB transfer services may not be available at all Walmart Photo, CVS Photo, or Forever Studios locations. Pricing and turnaround time can also vary. For specific details, contact your local store or studio directly.

FAQs about Copying DVD to USB Drive

How to copy DVD to USB with VLC?

  • Step 1: Open this free DVD to USB converter and tap the Convert/Save button and set the output format for the DVD rip.
  • Step 2: Click Profile menu and select the format you wish.
  • Step 3: In the Destination category, tap Browse and choose a folder for the  DVD converted video file and give a name to the output file。
  • Step 4: Lastly, tap the Start option to being the ripping process.

How to copy DVD to USB to play on TV?

To copy a DVD to a USB for playback on your TV, you need to first check which video formats are supported by your specific TV model. Some common formats include H.264 (.m4v, .mp4, .mov) for Apple TVs; H.264/HEVC (MP4, MOV, M4V, MKV) and VP9 (WebM) for Roku TVs; MP4, MPEG, WMV, MTS for Sony TVs; and AVI, MKV, MP4 and MOV among others for Samsung TVs.

Then you can use free DVD Ripper to rip your DVD to any of the formats in USB based on your TV model. You can also go to "Choose Other Profile" windows to select "Devices" where you can find some TV output presets. 

What USB flash drive format and capacity do you need to save your DVD collections?

The capacity of the USB flash drive you need to store your DVD collection depends on the size of each movie. A standard single-layer DVD can hold up to 4.7 GB, while a dual-layer DVD can store up to 8.5 GB.

If we assume that most movies are around 2 hours long and encoded with good quality at about 1-2GB per movie, a 128GB USB flash drive could hold approximately between 64 and 128 movies. However, this is an estimate; actual storage may vary based upon the specific file sizes.

As for format, it depends on what device you plan on using to play these files:

  • FAT32: This is compatible with almost all systems but has a file size limit of only 4GB.
  • NTFS: Works well with Windows systems and supports large files but might not work perfectly with other operating systems like macOS without additional software.
  • exFAT: This works well across both Windows and macOS systems and supports large files as well.

So if you're planning on storing full DVDs (as ISOs or Video_TS folders) which are larger than 4GB in size, then choosing NTFS or exFAT would be better options than FAT32.

Final Words

Transferring DVDs to USB flash drives has become increasingly important as many laptops lack DVD drives. To handle encrypted DVDs, using DVDFab DVD Ripper is a reliable solution. Besides, free tools and offline conversion services offer great convenience. Anyway, with the free and best DVD to USB converter, saving DVDs on USB becomes easier than ever.