[MacOS] Burn ISO to flash drive or CD/DVD disk
14 May 2023
Table of Contents
Goal
You have an ISO file and need to burn it on a flash drive or a CD/DVD disk.
Flash Drive
Find the device name
The first step is to find the device name corresponding to the USB key. Here it is /dev/disk6.
> diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *4.0 TB disk0
1: Apple_APFS_ISC Container disk2 524.3 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_APFS Container disk3 4.0 TB disk0s2
3: Apple_APFS_Recovery Container disk1 5.4 GB disk0s3
/dev/disk3 (synthesized):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: APFS Container Scheme - +4.0 TB disk3
Physical Store disk0s2
1: APFS Volume Macintosh HD 11.9 GB disk3s1
2: APFS Snapshot com.apple.os.update-... 11.9 GB disk3s1s1
3: APFS Volume Preboot 9.4 GB disk3s2
4: APFS Volume Recovery 1.6 GB disk3s3
5: APFS Volume Data 300.0 GB disk3s5
6: APFS Volume VM 20.5 KB disk3s6
/dev/disk6 (external, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US... *123.1 GB disk6
In this case, there was only one partition /dev/disk6.
But you may also have multiple partitions on your USB key. The important information you need here is the device representing the disk: /dev/disk4
> diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *4.0 TB disk0
1: Apple_APFS_ISC Container disk1 524.3 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_APFS Container disk3 4.0 TB disk0s2
3: Apple_APFS_Recovery Container disk2 5.4 GB disk0s3
/dev/disk3 (synthesized):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: APFS Container Scheme - +4.0 TB disk3
Physical Store disk0s2
1: APFS Volume Macintosh HD 12.8 GB disk3s1
2: APFS Snapshot com.apple.os.update-... 12.8 GB disk3s1s1
3: APFS Volume Preboot 9.7 GB disk3s2
4: APFS Volume Recovery 1.6 GB disk3s3
5: APFS Volume Data 328.2 GB disk3s5
6: APFS Volume VM 20.5 KB disk3s6
/dev/disk4 (external, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: FDisk_partition_scheme *4.0 GB disk4
1: DOS_FAT_32 NO NAME 4.0 GB disk4s1
Burn
sudo dd if=Downloads/Win11_22H2_English_x64v1.iso of=/dev/disk6 bs=1m
Password:
5299+1 records in
5299+1 records out
5557432320 bytes transferred in 864.412104 secs (6429147 bytes/sec)
Troubleshoot: Resource busy
You may encounter the Resource busy error
> sudo dd if=FreeBSD-13.1-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso of=/dev/disk4 bs=1m
dd: /dev/disk4: Resource busy
In that case, you need to umount the disk:
> sudo diskutil umountDisk /dev/disk4
Unmount of all volumes on disk4 was successful
And relaunch the dd command:
sudo dd if=FreeBSD-13.1-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso of=/dev/disk4 bs=1m
dd: /dev/disk4: end of device
3828+0 records in
3827+1 records out
4012916736 bytes transferred in 854.986172 secs (4693546 bytes/sec)
As the process may be long, depending of the ISO file. You may add the status=progress option. It prints basic transfer statistics once per second.
Umount
Umount the disk and unplug the USB key:
sudo diskutil umountDisk /dev/disk4
Password:
Unmount of all volumes on disk4 was successful
CD/DVD Disc
Burn
hdiutil burn Downloads/Win11_22H2_English_x64v1.iso
Preparing data for burn
Opening session
Opening track
Writing track
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Closing track
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Closing session
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Finishing burn
Verifying burn…
Verifying
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Burn completed successfully
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hdiutil: burn: completed