What is DMG file
A DMG File stands for Disk Image file and it is a file format which is used to create mountable disks on the Macintosh operating system. The DMG File format contains data in the form of blocks which are often secured using encryption methods or are compressed using compression algorithms. DMG files are used for installing tools and softwares into the Mac OS operating system. The file is downloaded from the internet from the software manufacturer’s website and upon mounting the DMG file, a virtual disk is generated from where the user can either copy the application to the applications folder or run an installation script depending on the type of installation.
The newer disk image file was used in place of the original IMG or image file which was used in earlier versions of mac that are classic mac operating systems. Disk Image Files are only meant to be used in Mac based systems and not on the Windows operating systems. However, using some image softwares like Daemon tools on windows, we can mount disk images of DMG type on windows too. Some tools can also convert DMG Files to windows-recognizable image files like .ISO files.
Benefits of DMG Disk Image format
- DMG Images are read only which ensures that the files inside the installer are not altered with. This makes the software supplied inside the dmg secure from viruses as no one can alter the file after it is created.
- Instead of sending more than one file over the internet, the creators have to send a single dmg disk image which contains all the required installation files of the software that can be simply dragged and dropped into the applications folder of Mac to install them.
- DMG files can be customized according to the manufacturer’s wish so that the installers look pleasing when people download the files for installing software.
- Disk images can be mounted on a computer just like a physical cd. This is a good thing as people can save a copy of the DMG file as a backup which can be used later to restore the previous state of the files.
What is ISO File
Hello, I want to try making my laptop into a hackintosh and I managed to find both a guide, kexts and dmg image of Yosemite(vanilla, not Niresh or something altered), but here comes my current problem: I'm running Windows10 and I can't turn the dmg into a bootable iso with dmg2iso (with linux subsistem terminal). Convert DMG to ISO and Create macOS Boot USB from Windows. Since ISO is a better format for Windows, you can also convert the DMG to the ISO format and then use the ISO disk image to create the bootable USB. Please note that you can't boot your Mac from bootable USB made from an ISO file, which means you'll have to convert it back to DMG prior.
An ISO file stands for International Organization for Standardization file format which specified ISO as the standard file format for disk image files in Windows. It is a file which can be used to mount disk image files in Windows operating systems. It can be used to emulate a CD, DVD or any other disk drive in Windows virtually.
It is generally used to hold disk images of operating systems like linux which can be burned into a disk or a USB drive. It is also used to send installation files of Windows softwares through the internet but they are usually sent through a binary package with an executable or an msi installer.
Basically ISO files are an image of something so you could have an image of a computer software package that would be all the files that existed on that computer software in one finite image. You can also burn that image file to a CD because these are optical images.
How to Convert DMG File to ISO
The ISO file format can be used on the Macintosh operating systems, however, almost all of the software packages for Mac is downloaded from the internet as a DMG Disk Image file. Although the DMG file format has some features which are not available in the ISO format like file encryption methods and compression algorithms, DMG files cannot be used anywhere else instead of a Mac. This is why we may need to convert DMG FIles to the ISO File format.
Convert Dmg To Bootable Iso
To convert dmg to iso file on Windows, you should install third party softwares like PowerISO. It is a disk image burning software that can be used to convert DMG File to ISO on Windows. You can also directly burn DMG Files to a CD/DVD using this software.
Before downloading PowerISO, check the system requirements that is required to install and run Power ISO.
System Requirements
- Any one of the following Windows Operating systems: Windows 98 / Windows Me/ Windows NT 4.0 / Windows 2000 / Windows XP / Windows 2003 / Windows Vista / Window 7 / Windows 8 / Windows 10 operating system or above.
- PowerISO can be used in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of windows.
- Processor: Intel Pentium with 166 MHz clock speed or better.
- 64 Megabytes of RAM.
- A minimum of 128 Gigabytes of storage space is required to install and run PowerISO.
Steps to download PowerISO on Windows
- Visit the official website of the PowerISO.
- Go to the download section of the website
- Select the version 32 bit / 64 bit according to your computer.
- Click on download PowerISO 64 /32 bit
Now, an installer file will be downloaded on your computer, open the file and do the required steps to install PowerISO on your computer.
To convert DMG to ISO, first open the PowerISO application on Windows and then select the tools option from the top ribbon.
Convert Dmg To Bootable Iso Online
From the dropdown list, select the option labeled as convert. Now you will see a dialog box titled convert image file. You can use this to convert image files from one file format to another. In our case, we have to convert it from dmg file format to iso file format so we will set it up accordingly.
Now, we have to select a source image which will be your dmg file you want to convert. After that, select the destination image file and name it as the name of the iso file you want at the end. Below that, there is a drop down menu where you have to select the output file format, select iso file format there.
After that, there are image file settings options where you can password protect the images but since we are converting dmg file to iso, iso doesn’t have password protection options so that section is greyed out.
Now, select OK to start the conversion process. Wait for a few minutes for the conversion to complete. When the conversion is complete, you should get a message which says “Converting image file completes successfully”. If there is an error, check whether the input dmg file is corrupted or not. If there are no errors, go to the location of the output file you specified earlier, you should have an iso output file of the name you have given.
In the post, we will learn How to Convert macOS Big Sur Installer to ISO. We recently discussed How to Create macOS Big Sur Bootable Installer for Clean Installation: 2 Easy Steps (MAC only) that might have helped you to create a macOS Big Sur Bootable USB.
Advanced Mac users get the freedom to convert macOS Big Sur Installer to ISO file. Normally, the resulting installer ISO file is utilized to install macOS Big Sur on Virtualbox and install macOS Big Sur on VMWare.
This tutorial will walk through the steps of How to Convert macOS Big Sur Installer to ISO.
In this specific walkthrough, we will Convert macOS Big Sur Installer to ISO.
You can also read: How to Speed Up macOS Big Sur? 7 Easy Methods
How to Convert macOS Big Sur Installer to ISO
Step 1: Download the macOS Big Sur Installer file from AppStore. You can simply follow this link and download the macOS Big Sur installer file (.app file).
Step 2: After the download is complete, do not proceed to install the macOS. Instead, close the installer and go to your application and look out for the installer file.
NOTE: The files must be present in your application folder to proceed with this tutorial.
Step 3: Now open you launchpad, and click Terminal.
Step 4: Execute the following commands one by one.
Create an empty Big Sur DMG image using the following command:
Next step is to mount the created Big Sur DMG disk image:
Now use createinstallmedia command to create the macOS Big Sur installer application on the mounted volume:
When createinstallmedia has finished, next you can unmount the volume you just created:
Now we convert the DMG disk image file to an ISO disk image file (technically a CDR file but it’s the same as an iso)
Finally, we rename the Big Sur CDR file extension to Big Sur ISO to convert the CDR to ISO:
Now you can see the macOS Big Sur ISO file on the desktop as shown in the snapshot.
Incase you want to remove the temporary file you can use the following command:
This is not a compulsory step, and the temporary file is removed automatically after some time.
Conclusion: How to Convert macOS Big Sur Installer to ISO: 4 Step Easy Guide
You can also use this guide How to Convert Bootable ISO File to Virtual Disk VHD/VMDK: 2 Way Guide and directly use them on your virtual systems.
Now, this macOS Big Sur ISO file can be used as a bootable disk, or you can directly use it on any virtual system like VMWare and VirtualBox.
Related: How to Create macOS Big Sur Bootable Installer for Clean Installation: 2 Easy Steps (MAC only)
Remember: In most cases, the ISO file that you have generated can only be used to run on Virtual Systems like Virtualbox and VMWare. They might not always work to create a bootable disk.
Dmg To Iso Pc
You can also refer to my post- How To Create macOS Big Sur Bootable USB on Windows: 4 Easy Steps (+Video Tutorial) if you are using a Windows system.
I hope this article has helped you to Convert macOS Big Sur Installer to ISO.