Sep 30, 2015 As has been the case for the last few releases of OS X, the easiest method to make a USB install drive is with the free program, Diskmaker X. It’s been updated today to support El Capitan.
For those who don't know, DMG files are mountable disk image files for Mac OS, just like ISO files of Windows OS. DMG files are generally found to be compressed and encrypted. Since it is Mac OS compatible, so it is easier to burn it to USB using a Mac platform. In fact, you can do that with in-built utilities. But when you are about to use it on a Windows system, you would need extra help of either offline third-party tools or online tools to do the job.
- The first method involves using command line executions to burn a DMG file to disk. In a Mac, this would be done in Terminal, which you can access in Applications Utilities Terminal. In Windows, it's the Command Prompt, which you can access by entering ‘cmd' in the run window.
- Part 2: How to Burn DMG to USB (Bootable) via DMG Editor on Mac UUByte DMG Editor is a versatile application that can help you burn converted DMG files to a USB drive. The interface is very simple, and all you need to do is click a few times and the job is done for you.
In this article, we will show you 5 ways to burn DMG files to USB using both Windows and Mac OS platform.
Part 1. Burn DMG to USB on MAC
This method may vary depending on which Mac OS version you are currently running, but the overall concept is same for all. The in-built disk utility on Mac is ideal for burning DMG to USB. Once the DMG is burnt, the USB drive, now bootable can be used as an installer on any other mac System.
Step 1. Navigate to the following pathway: Application>> Utilities>> Disk Utility.
Step 2. Click on the Disk Utility option to run it.
Step 3. Insert your USB drive and check if it appears on the left side of the Disk Utility operating Window. It means the drive is recognized by the system.
Step 4. Now open a Finder Window and browse to locate your DMG file. Drag the file to the Disk Utility Window.
Step 5. Now specifically select the file by clicking on it, and then click on 'Burn' option from the same Window.
A pop-up will appear, select the USB drive as your destination drive and click 'Burn' again to proceed.The process will take some time depending on the MAC os version you are using. Once done, take out the USB for later use.
Part 2. Convert DMG to ISO First then Burn to USB
In this approach, we will perform the task on Windows platform. To do this, we would first convert the DMG to ISO file format, since this is the file format Windows fully support. Then use any free ISO burners to burn ISO file into your USB drive. You can do this task using certain online converter as well. But we would use command prompt (command line interpreter of Windows OS) to do the job.
Step 1. Make sure you have the DMG file ready in your computer.
Step 2. Press 'Windows + R' to get the 'Run' dialogue box. Type 'cmd' and hit 'Enter' to get the black command prompt dialogue box.
Step 3. On the black screen of cmd, type the following syntax and hit 'Enter': dmg2img.exe {source file.dmg} {destination file.iso} .
For instance, dmg2img.exe c:Apple.Mac.OSX.v10.7.Lion.dmg c:mac.iso. The processing will take some time. After that, the DMG will be converted to ISO.
Step 4. Finally, you can use any freeware ISO burners, like PowerISO, ISO editor, Free ISO burner to burn the ISO file to your blank USB drive.
Part 3. Burn DMG to USB on Windows using UltraDMG
UltraDMG is a great tool that can seamlessly write DMG file to USB drive with the booting information and make it bootable. It's a fast and effective way to create a macos bootable installation drive. Apart of the DMG burning option, it also provides 'Extract' option which allows you to extract any files and folders from DMG file to computer. In the aspect of software usability , for those users who are not particularly tech-savvy, WonderISO has eliminated the hassle of performing lengthy and confusing steps. This is a third-party tool which can do the job both on Windows and Mac OS. It can not only burn DMG files to USB, but it can burn various other files formats like ISO, RAW, IMG, ZIP, BZ2, etc. It supports multiple disk image burning at the same time, which is quite unusual. Regular software updates are available from time to time. For your queries, professional team for customer support is available.
Step 1. Download the tool for sure from its official website to get the authentic one. Install it with on screen guidelines. Run it by clicking 'Run as administrator' from the right-click sub menu. On the first screen, you will be presented with two options to choose: Burn and Extract. Click on 'Burn' option.
Step 2. In this screen, Insert your USB to any free USB port and wait till the device is recognized.
Step 4. A new Window will pop-up. Here browse to select your DMG file from the computer directory, mention the USB drive to store the burnt image, and finally click 'Burn' option to start the process. The progress can be seen by a progress bar.
When it is done, take out the USB drive and insert your Mac computer. You can boot your Macbook from this USB drive by clicking the option button during bootup and select this USB drive.
Part 4. Burn DMG to USB on Windows using PowerISO
PowerISO is another third party tool which can burn Mac os DMG to USB drive on Windows 10. It can compress, edit, burn DMG files apart from ISO files. You just have to make certain changes to the tool's default settings to bring about the change. Apart of DMG file, it's also a great tool to process ISO image, CD/DVD burning and other process.Make an image and modify the preferences your ISO is prepared to use.
Step 1. Download the tool from any free software distributing sites to the computer which stores the DMG file.
Step 2. Insert your USB drive to any free USB port. From the tool main interface, click on 'Tools', and then 'Burn' option.
Step 3. When a new operating Windows turns up, set the burning speed to a optimum value that your hardware can handle. Click on 'Burn' once more to initiate the burning process.
The third method is recommended if you don't have much experience with command prompts and ISO burners. It is an easier and direct approach. You don't even have to get an additional ISO burner to do the job, since it is in-built. So UUByte DMG Editor appeals to novices or beginners.
[Editor’s note: This article is part of our series of articles on installing and upgrading to Lion (OS X 10.7). We also have a complete guide to installing and upgrading to Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8).]
Unlike previous versions of Mac OS X, Lion (OS X 10.7) doesn’t ship on a bootable disc—it’s available only as an installer app downloadable from the Mac App Store, and that installer doesn’t require a bootable installation disc. Indeed, this lack of physical media is perhaps the biggest complaint about Lion’s App Store-only distribution, as there are a good number of reasons you might want a bootable Lion installer, whether it be a DVD, a thumb drive, or an external hard drive.
For example, if you want to install Lion on multiple Macs, a bootable installer drive can be more convenient than downloading or copying the entire Lion installer to each computer. Also, if your Mac is experiencing problems, a bootable installer drive makes a handy emergency disk. (Lion features a new recovery mode (also called Lion Recovery), but not all installations of Lion get it—and if your Mac’s drive is itself having trouble, recovery mode may not even be available. Also, if you need to reinstall Lion, recovery mode requires you to download the entire 4GB Lion installer again.) Finally, a bootable installer drive makes it easier to install Lion over Leopard (assuming you have the license to do so).
Thankfully, it’s easy to create a bootable Lion-install volume from the Lion installer that you download from the Mac App Store; just follow the steps below.
Update: When this article was originally published, the Mac App Store version of Lion would not boot any Macs released in mid-2011 or later, as those models shipped with a newer version of Lion preinstalled. However, unlike with the CD- and DVD-based Mac OS X installers of old, Apple can—and does—update the Mac App Store version of the Lion installer. So if you create a bootable Lion-installer drive using the current version of the Lion installer—which, as of 2/10/2012, installs OS X 10.7.3—that drive will work with all current Lion-capable Macs. If your only Mac was released after Lion, so you can’t download the Lion installer from the Mac App Store, I’ve also provided instructions for creating a bootable Lion-install drive for newer Macs.
Part 1: For all types of media
- Once you’ve purchased Lion, find the Lion installer on your Mac. It’s called Install Mac OS X Lion.app and it should have been downloaded to
/Applications
. - Right-click (or Control+click) the installer, and choose Show Package Contents from the resulting contextual menu.
- In the folder that appears, open Contents, then open Shared Support; you’ll see a disk-image file called InstallESD.dmg.
- Launch Disk Utility (in
/Applications/Utilities
). - Drag the InstallESD.dmg disk image into Disk Utility’s left-hand sidebar.
The next steps depend on whether you want to create a bootable hard drive or flash drive, or a bootable DVD. I recommend a hard drive or flash drive—a DVD will work, but it takes a long time to boot and install.
To create a bootable hard drive or flash drive
- In Disk Utility, select InstallESD.dmg in the sidebar, and then click the Open button in the toolbar. This mounts the disk image’s volume in the Finder. The mounted volume is called Mac OS X Install ESD.
- Click Mac OS X Install ESD in Disk Utility’s sidebar, then click the Restore button in the main part of the window.
- Drag the Mac OS X Install ESD icon into the Source field on the right (if it isn’t already there).
- Connect to your Mac the hard drive or flash drive you want to use for your bootable Lion installer. This drive must be at least 5GB in size (an 8GB flash drive works well), and it must be formatted with a GUID Partition Table. Follow Steps 1 through 4 in this slideshow to properly format the drive.
- In Disk Utility, find this destination drive in the sidebar and then drag it into the Destination field on the right; if the destination drive has multiple partitions, just drag the partition you want to use as your bootable installer volume. Warning: The next step will erase the destination drive or partition, so make sure it doesn’t contain any valuable data.
- Click Restore and, if prompted, enter an admin-level username and password. The restore procedure will take anywhere from five to 15 minutes, depending on your Mac and the speed of your drive.
Note: In versions of the Lion installer prior to 10.7.4, you didn’t need to first mount the InstallESD.dmg image—you could simply drag the image itself into the Source field. However, with the 10.7.4 installer, you must use the mounted Mac OS X Install ESD volume or you will get an error at the end of the restore procedure and the newly created bootable drive may not function properly.
Part 2b: To create a bootable DVD
In Disk Utility, select InstallESD.dmg in the sidebar
Click the Burn button in the toolbar.
When prompted, insert a blank DVD (a single-layer disc should work, although you can use a dual-layer disc instead), choose your burn options, and click Burn.
You can now boot any Lion-compatible Mac from this drive or DVD and install Lion. You can also use any of the Lion installer’s special recovery and restore features—in fact, when you boot from this drive or DVD, you’ll see the same Mac OS X Utilities screen you get when you boot into restore mode.
Note: As explained in our main Lion-installation article, if you leave the Lion installer in its default location (in /Applications
) and use it to install Lion on your Mac’s startup drive, the installer will be automatically deleted after the installation finishes. So if you plan to use that installer on other Macs, or to create a bootable disc or drive as explained here, be sure to copy the installer to another drive—or at least move it out of the Applications folder—before you install. If you don’t, you’ll have to re-download the entire thing from the Mac App Store.
If you’ve already installed Lion—so it’s too late to move the installer—you’ve may find that the Mac App Store claims that Lion is already installed and prevents you from downloading it again. As I explained in our main Lion-installation article, you should be able to force a re-download using one of the following three tricks: First, Option+click the Buy App button in the Mac App Store. If that doesn’t work, switch to the Mac App Store’s main page and then Option+click the Purchases button in the toolbar. If that doesn’t work, quit the Mac App Store app and then hold down the Option key while launching the Mac App Store again. One of these three procedures should get rid of the “Installed” status for Lion and let you download it. Update: Apple appears to have recently made this process easier: If you previously purchased Lion from the Mac App Store, the button next to Lion in the Store should simply say Download—click it to re-download the installer.
Updated 7/20/2011, 10am, to add note about moving the Lion installer package to prevent it from being deleted.
Updated 7/22/2011, 11:10am, to add instructions for forcing a re-download of the Lion installer, if necessary.
Burn Dmg To Usb Terminal Cable
Updated 8/8/2011, 9:19am, with additional information about thumb-drive capacity and drive format.
Updated 8/19/2011, 2pm, to clarify compatibility.
Burn Dmg To Usb Terminal Cable
Updated 2/10/2012, 12pm, with information about compatibility when using the latest Lion installer, and to note easier re-downloading of Lion installer.
Burn Dmg To Usb Terminal Download
Updated 6/27/2012, 9pm, to add note about Disk Utility error message introduced with the 10.7.4 installer, and 6/29/2012, 8:20am, to update instructions so they work when creating a drive using the 10.7.4 installer.