DMG Editor - Make Bootable USB from DMG File on Windows. It is not easy to find an user-friendly application when it comes to make bootable macOS Install USB. That's the reason why we spent months to develop such an app. Our latest product, DMG Editor, is a fairly robust application for creating bootable USB from a DMG file. And it works well. Create Usb Installer With Install Os.dmg Sierra Pro Dmg Installer One work around that has been posted before is to make a bootable USB with the old Sierra install app (if you have it), when the bootable USB has been created just drag the new Install macOS Sierra.app into the USB Volume on the Desktop, then just click on Replace.
So you’re running Linux on your computer, maybe Ubuntu, and you have some files with the .dmg extension. In this guide, we’re going to talk about how to open, mount, extract, and otherwise get your files from these pesky DMG images. You could always just extract the files on a Mac, then transfer them back to your Linux machine. But if you really want to do this on Linux, without having to rely on Mac, here’s how to do it.
What are DMG image files?
Simply put, it’s a kind of image file. But not an image like a jpeg is an image. DMG is Apple’s proprietary disk image format, native to Mac OS X. There are actually a whole bunch of different types, format and options within this format. There are options for encryption, compression, and different kinds of partition schemes, among others. Unfortunately, this can make things pretty confusing when we’re trying to gain access to the data contained in one of these images.
DMG images are typically a kind of Universal Disk Image Format (UDIF), although there are others, namely NDIF and SPARSE. Although the .dmg file extension is usually used, they can also sometimes have an .img extension, or in some cases no extension at all. Their MIME type is application/x-apple-diskimage.
The HFS/HFS+ (Mac OS Extended/Journaled) file system is typically used in DMGs. However, this isn’t always the case. You may also sometimes find FAT and ExFAT files systems, as well as variations on HFS.
Does my system support DMG?
Perhaps the biggest hurdle to overcome when trying to work with DMG files is working with the HFS file system (Mac OS Extended). Linux supports HFS through the “hfs” and “hfsplus” kernel modules.
There’s an easy way to test if your system has these kernel modules. Plug in a USB drive formatted with the Mac OS Extended file system. If your particular distribution doesn’t have the appropriate modules, you will likely get an error message. On Ubuntu, you’ll get a popup window declaring “Ubuntu: Unable to mount
Alternatively, we can see if the kernel module files are present with find:
We want to see two files: “hfs.ko” and “hfsplus.ko”. If find doesn’t return these files, your system probably doesn’t support HFS.
You could also try “modinfo”: modinfo hfs and modinfo hfsplus should return something like:
If you get 'modinfo: ERROR: Module hfsplus not found' your system doesn’t have these modules.
Not all Linux kernels and distributions support HFS. This is especially the case for certain distributions that are a few years old. If you have kernel support for HFS, great! If not, don’t worry. There are still ways to extract data from your DMG files. While it’s nice to have the option to mount the images we’re working with, this is really the only functionality we’re losing without having the hfs and hfsplus modules. The two programs we’re going to use later on (P7ZIP and dmg2img) do not require kernel support to function.
What kinds of DMG images can be opened in Linux?
How To Mount Dmg
This guide is about how to open, mount, and extract files from read/write, read only, and compressed DMG image files. The following partition schemes have all been tested with the techniques discussed here.
- Apple Partition Map
- CD/DVD (partitioned)
- CD/DVD (partitioned) with ISO data
- Hard disk
- Master Boot Record Partition Map
- No partition map
This guide does not cover how to handle sparse disk images (.sparseimage), sparse bundle disk images (.sparsebundle), or CD/DVD masters. DMG images with partition scheme types of “CD/DVD” and “GUID Partition Map” do not appear to work with the techniques described here.
Option 1: Mount the DMG
If the Linux distribution you’re on has HFS support in the kernel (Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS supports it), it’s pretty easy to just mount the DMG image:
We’re using “sudo” because we need root privileges to mount things. The HFS+ file system type is specified with “-t hfsplus”. The “/mnt” at the end of the command specifies where we’re mounting the image.
Unmount the image with sudo umount /mnt
If you get a wrong fs type message like the one below, it means the DMG file is either of an unsupported type, or it’s compressed. Unsupported images include sparse images, sparse disk bundles, CD/DVD masters, and images with partition schemes of the CD/DVD or GUID Partition Map types.
Use “file” to learn a little more about the image file:
If you get image.dmg: x86boot sector that means it’s probably using a GUID Partition Map and isn’t supported. This isn’t good, however, it’s also not too terribly common.
What’s more common is to see something like this:
If mounting isn’t working, and this is what you’re seeing with “file image.dmg”, then you’re luck!. Our problems are being caused by compression. Linux doesn’t like to mount compressed DMG images. To get around this little obstacle, we’ll use dmg2img (see below).
Option 2: Use dmg2img for compressed images
So you have a DMG image that you can’t mount because it’s compressed. You’ve done “file compressed_image.dmg” and you got “compressed_image.dmg: bzip2 compressed data”. The fix? That’s easy: use dmg2img to convert it to an uncompressed image. Once you run the image through dmg2img you should be able to mount it no problem.
Don’t have dmg2img? It’s usually pretty easy to get using your distribution’s package management. On Ubuntu, you’d do:
Using dmg2img isn’t very difficult. Type “dmg2img” into the command line followed by the name of the DMG file you want to decompress. The Mac OS X version of Firefox is a good example of a compressed DMG file.
Now mount the resulting .img file:
Option 3: Extract DMG contents with P7ZIP
P7ZIP is awesome. It’s the Linux/BSD version of 7-Zip. Check out their SourceForge page here With it you can literally extract files from any kind of image or archive. Just kidding… It doesn’t really work with every format conceivable. However, it can handle (in alphabetical order): ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, CramFS, DEB, DMG, FAT, HFS, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MBR, MSI, NSIS, NTFS, RAR, RPM, SquashFS, UDF, VHD, WIM, XAR and Z. Impressed? I certainly am!
Installing p7zip is pretty easy using your distribution’s package management system. On Ubuntu with apt-get:
In addition to being able to extract data from compressed and uncompressed images alike, P7ZIP doesn’t require the HFS kernel modules at all. In the example below, we’re going to extract all of the files from “Firefox 33.1.1.dmg”. When we’re done, we’ll have a tidy little folder called “Firefox”.
Invoke P7ZIP to extract archives and images with “7z x”.
Notice that 7z extracted three files: “0.ddm”, “1.Apple_partition_map”, and “2.hfs”. To actually get to the files, we’ll need to run 7z again on “2.hfs”.
We picked “2.hfs” because it was the biggest of the three, meaning it was probably the one with the data. Simple but effective logic. After a few moments, you should have a folder called “Firefox” with all of the files from the original DMG.
A DMG file is essentially Apple's format for mountable disk images in Mac OS X (macOS) computers. When opened, it mounts a virtual disk on the computer, and is normally used for installing new applications. DMG file is usually encrypted and compressed, unlike ISO, which is an uncompressed disk image format.
While DMG files are usually downloaded from the Mac App Store, they can also be burned to a USB disk when you want to install a utility on another machine. In such cases, you will need to create a bootable macOS disk or burn it to a USB flash drive so it can be used on another system for OS installation. This article shows you four different ways to burn .dmg file on Windows PC or Mac.
P.S if you did not download the macOS dmg file, here are a few useful links to download Big Sur, CatalinaMojave and High Serria.
Part 1: How to Burn DMG to USB on Mac for Free (Disk Utility)
The native disk image utility on Mac is ideal for burning a DMG to a USB drive. Once you burn the file to the drive, this drive can be used to install the associated application on any other Mac system. The process may vary slightly depending on which version of Mac OS X your computer is running, but the steps below will give you a fair idea of how the process should be carried out.
How To Mount .dmg File
Step 1: Go to Applications >>Utilities >>Disk Utility and click on it to launch the program.
Step 2: On the left, you'll see all the available drives. Insert the USB drive and watch as it appears on that list.
Step 3: Now open a Finder window and locate your DMG file. Drag and drop it under the drive names in the Disk Utility app.
Step 4: Select the file, and then click on 'Burn' in the same window. In the popup that appears, select your destination drive, which is the USB flash drive you want to burn the DMG file to. Click 'Burn' in the popup window.
Once the process is complete, remove the USB stick and use it to install the application associated with that DMG on any other Mac computer.
Pros:
- Totally free.
- No need to install other apps.
Cons:
- Not available on newer macOS (Mojave and later).
- USB may not be bootable for certain dmg files.
Part 2: How to Burn DMG to USB on Windows PC & Mac (Bootable)
UUByte DMG Editor is a versatile application that can help you burn DMG files to a USB drive on Windows PC and Mac. The interface is very simple, and all you need to do is click a few times and the job is done for you. DMG Editor gives you the option of creating macOS bootable USB drive for installation, and is the perfect tool for transporting your DMG files in their ISO avatar. Assuming you have a USB drive with enough capacity, it can hold several programs.
DMG Editor doesn't require any technical expertise because it is specifically designed for new users who may not be comfortable handling disk images. All the hard work is done behind the scenes, and the layout is intuitive enough for any novice to figure out what to do. For first-time users, here's a small guide for using it to burn .dmg file to a USB drive.
Key Features of DMG Editor
- Make USB bootable after burning to USB.
- Able to edit DMG file and recreate it.
- Also support burning to CD or DVD disc.
- Easily extract files from DMG file.
Step 1: Install UUByte DMG Editor
Install DMG Editor after downloading it from the official site. Insert your USB drive into a free port.
Step 2: Insert USB Drive and Import DMG File
Launch DMG Editor and select the 'Burn' option, which will take you to a new window.
Step 3: Start Burning DMG to USB
Select the DMG file and specify the destination, which is your USB drive. Click on Burn. That's it! In a few moments your USB drive containing the DMG file will be ready.
Step 4: Install macOS from USB
When the burning process is completed, you will get to the following screen. Please open the foot link and take a full read, which tells you how to install macOS from external USB drive.
Using DMG Editor to create macOS bootable USB is an easy task because there is no command involved and the user interface is intuitive. That's why it is favored by thousands of users across the world.
Pros:
- Create bootable macOS installer from dmg file.
- Easy to use.
- Extract content from DMG file on PC.
- Support latest macOS Catalina.
Cons:
- Premium software.
- Lack support for old Mac OS X.
Part 3: Convert DMG to ISO and Burn ISO to USB
In certain instances, you may want to use a Windows computer instead of a Mac, which means you won't have the disk utility. Besides, Windows can't natively handle DMG files, so you will need to convert it into an ISO disk image that Windows can work with. Follow the steps below to do this.
Step 1: Download the DMG file and then convert it to ISO using a free online conversion service like YouConvertIt.
Step 2: Once you do this, you can use another utility like ISO Editor to burn the ISO file to a USB drive.
Remember, even if you convert the DMG to ISO, it's still Mac-compatible only, so you can't use it to install the program on a Windows system. However, it's helpful when your own system is a Windows PC and you want to burn the DMG file to a USB drive. In this case, you will need to convert it back to the DMG format for the installation.
Pros:
- Completely free.
- More options available for burning ISO image.
Cons:
- Take much more time.
- USB not bootable.
Part 4: How to Burn DMG to USB on Windows 10/8/7
If you're on a Windows PC, another way to burn a DMG file to a USB drive is to use TransMac. This is very useful if your Mac has become unbootable and you only have a Windows alternative. In such cases, you can use TransMac to burn the DMG file for Mac OS X (whatever version you want to install on your broken Mac) to a USB drive and do the installation that way.
To install Mac OS X, you're going to need a USB with at least 16 GB of free space. Also, it's better to take a backup of existing data so you don't lose it during the burn process. Follow the steps below to use TransMac:
Mount Dmg To Usb
Step 1: Download an original copy of TransMac to a Windows PC. The 14-day trial will let you execute the process we're going to describe, so go ahead and install it.
Step 2: Download the DMG file for the version of Mac OS X that you want to install. Now launch TransMac, but make sure to run it as the Administrator. Click on 'Run' once the application is launched, and insert the USB flash drive.
Step 3: The next step can be a little confusing because, normally, you would select the DMG or ISO file first before selecting the destination drive. Here, it's the other way around. In the main window, right-click on the USB drive in the left-side panel, then select 'Restore with Disk Image'.
Step 4: You'll get a warning popup. Select 'Yes' if you've backed up the contents of the USB drive, or else click 'No', backup the drive and then resume the process at Step 3.
Step 5: This is where you select the disk image, so go ahead and choose your Mac OS X .DMG file and click 'Ok'. The DMG file will now be burned to the drive you specified.
Pros:
- Make bootable USB installer from dmg image.
- Format disk to Mac compabile partition.
- Create new disk image.
Cons:
- Only 15 days of free trial.
- Costly price ($59).
Summary
All of these methods work well, so it's just a matter of preference and convenience, and depends on whether you have a Mac or a Windows PC. On a Mac, Disk Utility may show you some errors when burning a DMG file to a drive. Similarly, when you use a Windows system, converting DMG to ISO could corrupt the file, making it unusable once you convert it back to DMG. That's why we recommended YouConvertIt for that. Based on all these factors, choose the method that will work best for your specific situation.