This may look something like the following, but note that it will be different on every Mac, since each might have different disk drives: STEP 1) Launch the diskutil with the following command: So if you've never used 'dd' or never have formated a disk under Terminal before, you might want a Terminal savvy friend to assist you the first time for this task. There is no confirmation, therefore it is critical that you use the proper drive identifier and proper syntax to avoid erasing the wrong disk. WARNING: Make sure that you understand that what we'll be doing will erase the target volume, replacing whatever data is on the destination drive (an USB stick) with the ISO contents (the disk image file). So, if you want to write a DMG image, you have to first convert your DMG to ISO using Disk Utility or use the n00b disk image restore to USB method involving Disk Utility, which all things considered, is much easier than the following method involving the Terminal. Also, you CANNOT directly write DMG images, because they are compressed. This process does not take ZIP files, it only takes the uncompressed disk image (.iso.

Read that other article if you're looking for doing this under Windows using HDD Raw Copy Tool.īefore you begin, if your disk image is zipped or compressed, make sure to expand/uncompress it first. You do not need any additional or third party software since Mac OS X is UNIX based and comes with 'dd' which is all it takes to accomplish this. This article lays out the steps in order to 'burn' (or clone, or copy) a disk image (such as an ISO boot/install CD) onto an USB stick using only a vanilla Mac OS X environment that any Mac user already has available.

Mac burn iso to flash drive