Burning ISO images on a Mac

I burn ISO images on my Mac fairly frequently, but not often enough to have the process committed to memory. In the past I’ve always followed the instructions I found in a macosxhints post. It works, but it has always seemed a little convoluted to me. I found a much simpler method today:

  1. Insert a blank CD/DVD.
  2. In Finder, double-click on the ISO image you want to burn.
  3. Open Disk Utility (in Finder / Applications / Utilities / Disk Utility). Depending on your settings, either of the previous steps might open Disk Utility for you.
  4. In the left pane of Disk Utility, select the ISO image (e.g. “7.2-RELEASE-i386-disc1.iso”, not the “FreeBSD_Install” contents of it).
  5. Click the Burn icon on the top of the window (or Apple-B on the keyboard, or via the menu select Images / Burn ).


(Original instructions below. Thanks for the tip, Nick!)

  1. Open Disk Utility (in Finder / Applications / Utilities / Disk Utility).
  2. Make sure nothing is selected in the left pane of Disk Utility (in case you had it open already).
  3. From the menu, select Images / Burn (or Apple-B on the keyboard).
  4. A file requester will pop up. Navigate to the ISO image you wish to burn.
  5. Insert a blank CD/DVD if you haven’t done so already.
  6. Click Burn.
  7. Done!

About Jim Vanderveen

I'm a bit of a Renaissance man, with far too many hobbies for my free time! But more important than any hobby is my family. My proudest accomplishment has been raising some great kids! And somehow convincing my wife to put up with me since 1988. ;)
This entry was posted in Mac OS X, Uncategorized and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

One Response to Burning ISO images on a Mac

  1. Nicholas says:

    Note, too, that double-clicking an ISO file in the Finder will mount it just like any other (write-only) disk image. Once it’s mounted, it’ll be listed in the left pane in Disk Utility; selecting it will activate the Burn button, at which point you can proceed from step 5 of your instructions.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *