Disc images are a fairly common packaging standard for large software programs. If you want to try out a new Linux distribution, for example, chances are you'll need to download a disc image in and burn it to a blank CD-ROM or DVD. But ever since I began using Mac OS X, I've been perpetually confused about how to burn ISO images. I'm used to disc burning utilities that have an obvious, explicit command like 'Burn ISO Image to CD.'
Make a bootable USB drive from.img in Mac OS X. I needed to make a USB bootable drive of pfSense and being an OS X newb, had to Google it. Here's what I found. Run these commands from Terminal. Diskutil list. Find your USB drive in the list, mine was /dev/disk2. Unmount the drive if it is currently mounted, umount /dev/disk2.
To make life even more confusing, OS X's Disk Utility does have a Burn command, but it becomes disabled when you click on the blank disc you'd like to use for the burn. The problem here is that most Mac disc utilities, including the built-in Disk Utility, take a different approach when it comes to image burning.
Instead of telling the program you want to burn an image, then choosing the file, you're supposed to do the reverse: You choose the file, then tell the program you want to burn it. So, to burn an ISO image to disc, here's what to do:.
Insert a blank disc. Start Disk Utility. From the File menu, choose Open Disk Image and select the ISO to be burned. In the list of volumes, you will now see an item representing the ISO file.
Click the Burn button and follow the instructions. Sure, it may seem simple enough, but when you've been using Linux and Windows utilities for years, these steps can be a little perplexing and hard to remember. robg adds: Yes, for those who've been on the Mac for a long time, this is an obvious hint. However, I've been confused when trying to use Windows and Nero to burn discs, so it seems the opposite would also be true for those new to our platform of choice. Thanks for the hint. It's nice to have these 'obvious to some, hidden to others' hints.
I would just to point out a thought process: If you want to copy/move a file from one folder to another, you select the file, then drag it to the new folder. This is the thought process for burning a CD. You select the file, then 'copy' (burn) it to the CD. It would be very strange if you wanted to make acopy of file to another folder, to first select the destination folder then to select the file to copy there. Hopefully this will help others through the mindset. The problem here is that most Mac disc utilities, including the built-in Disk Utility, take a different approach when it comes to image burning. Instead of telling the program you want to burn an image, then choosing the file, you're supposed to do the reverse: You choose the file, then tell the program you want to burn it.
Actually you can do just that. When you first open Disk Utility, none of the disk images will be selected in the disk image list on the left of the screen. As long as none are selected, clicking the burn button causes the 'Open File' pane to come down, you can then select the image you want and it will burn. One step, exactly what you wanted in the first place.
While I agree with you that figuring it how to burn an image the first is tough it's even easier than that. Say you downloaded an ISO off the web. 1)insert blank disc, exit out of the window that comes up.(I don't remember if you want the disc mounted or not, if no one replies to this I will tell you when I get back to my happy Mac.) 2)Drag ISO to the trash can. For me it becomes the burn button and then burns said ISO. Create a burn folder copy the items you want burned to it, and repeat the above. When using burn folders the burn button becomes active in finder as well. I very rarely need to use disk utility.
OS X does provide other ways to do some of those tasks. They are not all obvious though. I thought once I was found but it was only a dream. I'm sorry but I do believe there is a much simpler method for doing this. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong or if I missed someone else's comment dealing with this: 1: Open Disk Utility 2: Images menu - Burn. (or command-B) 3: Select the.iso image in the ensuing dialog (or.dmg file or whatever) 4: Your tray will open.
Insert a blank disc. Click 'Burn'. If you already have a blank disc in there, it should still work from step 2.
Don't know why that option is greyed out for the poster of this hint. Perhaps they shouldn't be selecting the blank disc in the list of discs/images. Just make sure NOTHING is selected prior to step 2. Or, if your.iso file is selected in the sidebar, that's a good start for sure.
As for.bin files. Yeah, Toast, or maybe DiscBlaze? Hope this helps! I switched to Mac about three years ago now. Obviously it was a different version of OSX, therefore the disk utility was different from what it is now. I also struggled with being able to burn iso disc images with disk utility. I was unable to locate any help at that time and after many hours attempting on my own, I gave up and bought Toast.
It is a great program and works great. But it is expensive and the new version of disk utility works just fine for burning image files and its free!:).well you know what I mean, included.
One of the many things I love about OSX is the drag and drop ability. So, with that said you can also opt to keep the disk utility icon in your dock. Then just drag your iso file onto the disk utility icon, it will launch utility and there on the left will be your iso, select it, and click burn, throw your disc in and hit enter. I found this at slashdotdash. It is really useful for creating iso files in 10.4 - especially stubborn ones that won't build through disk util: 1.
Insert CD/DVD source 2. From the terminal you need to discover the location of your CD-ROM: $ drutil status You are looking for the following - Name: /dev/disk1 3.
Umount the disk with the following command: $ diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk1 4. Create the ISO file with the dd utility: $ dd if=/dev/disk1 of=file.iso bs=2048 5. Test the ISO image by mounting the iso: $ hdid file.iso 6. Burn or store the ISO.
To remount the CD, use $ diskutil mountDisk /dev/disk1 If you need to burn a bootable disk (or one with hidden sectors like say a Windows install disk), replace the command: $ dd if=/dev/disk1 of=file.iso bs=2048 With $ dd if=/dev/disk1s0 of=file.iso bs=2048 I've never had this fail on me. But be warned, you can hose a lot with the dd command.
Remember, until the Mighty Mouse, standard Mac mice only had one button. The 'right click' convention is very new to olde-tyme mac users (and I would wager, Mac developers as well).
The olde-type mac convention is the good ol' 'click-and-drag'. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but can you not simply download the iso, pop in your blank CDR, drag the iso image to the CDR icon, and click 'burn'? Don't get me wrong here, I'm not trying to mock the 'switchers' out there who assume it's more complicated than that because the OS they're used to (Windows) makes it more complicated. After all, the whole reason I found this thread is because I too assumed it would be more complicated (I switched from Mac to PC a few years back due to work requirements, and am only now switching back.
I'm having to 're-learn' some of the intuitive functions of the Mac). In fact, I haven't tested the 'click-and-drag' approach yet because I followed the disk utility method in the first post of this thread. Still, I'd be very surprised if the 'click-and-drag' method doesn't get the job done. After all, it's the way Macs have worked since 1984. There's no real such thing as a 'bootable cd' in Mac terms.
If your CD (or floppy) has a full version of the OS on it, it'll boot. To boot from CD, you have to hold down the 'C' key on your keyboard at startup. That's been the convention since at least OS 7.6.1 (that was the first OS I used with a CD rom.
Booting from floppy in OS 6 on my Mac Classic didn't even require holding down the 'C' key). ASIDE: Not until this year have I had the opportunity to explain olde-tyme Mac conventions to PC 'switchers'. I have to say, it feels really nice to be explaining the quirks of my OS to them for a change, rather than having to ask them how to perform the same tasks in Windows. Very helpful info on using disk utilities to burn the.ISO - and this went swimmingly until the end of the burn when the dialogue box says 'closing session'. The disk util program has now hung at this point for some hours. And no indication that it will ever finish. This also happened earlier today and (again) after some hours I quit from the burn program, but then found I couldn't eject the DVD I had in the drive.
Eventually I had to reboot, and the DVD could be ejected during start-up but could not be read when I tried reading it. Anyone got some idea what might be going wrong, and what I can do to sort this out? I'm running OSX10.3.9 on an old iMac 1GHz PowerPC with 1.25 GB memory (if this helps).or do I copy the.ISO onto an external HDD and move the file to a PC and use MagicISO or somesuch? Thanks in advance.
I would like to say 'Thanks' to Vocaro for the giving me the answer to the ISO file mystery. I have about 5 DVD's with Linux and Solaris in an ISO form. And they are pretty much worth less than the DVD I wasted on them. Not the OS's on them but the fact that if you don't burn the DVD correctly all you get is the same disk image that you had on your hard drive but now it's burned into a DVD or CD and totally useless other than for pulling the.jpegs for wallpaper. I was going to use these disks for ninja stars until I read your post.
I don't know why all these links on Google are so run around the answer? You get links for a 'Mac ISO burner freeware', I go to it and it's all for Windows!! Anyway thanks. Now just tell me how to install the stuff.d8^)).
I've been trying to install Windows tiny7 on my acer aspire one to no avail. Normally to create live usb's of moblin, ubuntu, crunchbang or any other linux distro i use either unetbootin on my AA1 or terminal commands on my main computer, an imac, which can be found here: however, with an.iso of tiny7 i've downloaded, i'm getting nowhere, as neither avenues work. Does anyone have any solutions that dont involve acccess to a windows pc? Thanks in advance.
I have found that the easiest way to do this is to use two programs: Disc Utility (DU) and Hand Brake (HB). If you have a collection of.iso files, simply open DU and from the 'File' tab, select Open Disk Image. Locate the folder your.iso file is located in and select it.
A new Finder window will pop up and provide that.iso in a folder containing usually two sub folders: AUDIOTS and VIDEOTS. Now open HB and click the 'Source' tab. It will ask you for video files. Find the Finder window containing your.iso sub folders and select the VIDEOTS folder.
Then create a destination you would like your output video file placed. Select the format of video you desire, found on the right column in HB, and select 'Start' at the top left.
. This article will enable you to convert an iso, dmg or img file to a bootable usb stick or SD Card on mac OSX using the command line.
Please see the ‘Summary Overview’ tab below for a high level view of the objectives this ‘howto’ will achieve. Why might I want to do this?. To create bootable installation media on a USB stick such as:. A rescue USB stick for OSX. Installation media for Windows 10, 7 or any other version. Installation media for a Linux operating system such as Ubuntu, Sabayon, Redhat, SuSe or any other flavour.
Micro SD installation media for a Raspberry Pi. You may also want to convert apple’s native dmg format to iso or vice-versa. To be clear, what exactly is an img, dmg or iso file? Simply put, these are called ‘container’ files, which typically emulate traditional CD or DVD optical media, which have files contained within.
A container file is useful because it is not constrained to the size limitations of current generally available optical media and most crucially remains the simplest way to create a ‘boot disk’ to perform installation and recovery options for the target system. For example, when a new version of Mac OSX or Windows comes out (i.e. Windows 10), you’ll typically have two choices:. A dmg file to download in the case of mac or. An iso file to download in the case of windows. (Windows is now offering a USB stick download, but if you have a mac, it’s actually easier to use this process anyway).
What’s the difference between are each of these file formats?. img file – Essentially img and dmg are the same thing, it’s a throw back from earlier mac days, but basically both img and dmg are used on mac. iso file – An iso file is a long standing format designed to be a complete copy of an optical disk. It’s name comes from ISO9660 referring to a CDROM standard. The main thing to know is it’s what you generally use on Windows, though mac can read this as well.
Note – in most cases OSX will create your.img file with the extension.dmg, just rename it like this: mv yourfile.dmg yourfile.img Copy your img file to your USB stick or SD card You’re going to use the same console to see what current devices are in the list, then you’ll insert your USB stick or SD card and check what has changed. diskutil list. Insert your USB stick or SD Card and wait for 5 seconds for things to settle. diskutil list (again) You should see your USB stick or SD card device in the list (look also at naming, but generally there should be a new device somewhere in the list).
Take note of the name of this device (it will be something like /dev/disk3. diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskx (where x is the disk number you memorised earlier) Next we will write our newly created image file to this new USB Stick or SD card. Note however that because we’ve unmounted the disk we need to convert the terminology, in my case /dev/disk3 becomes /dev/rdisk3. Also note, you must have root access to do this. sudo dd if=inputfile.img of=/dev/rdiskx bs=1m. Enter your password for sudo if prompted.
sync. diskutil eject /dev/diskx (just to be really safe) Depending on the size of your image file and the speed of your USB port, this may take 5 or even 10 minutes to complete. Once done you have installation media that you can plug into the USB port or SD slot of another computer and perform your new Windows 10, Mac or linux installation.