Command Line Knowledge for macOS: “Burn” ISO to SD Card

I have to live the “multi-operating system” life style. So. There are times where you find yourself dealing with install media that’s ISO image. And often enough, it’s my MBP that’s the only thing I’ve got connected to the network at the time.

All right, I have to keep looking up the instructions for “burning” an ISO to removable storage so often that I just figure post them here and see if Google (or preferably, Duck Duck Go) will find them for me the next time I have to do this.

The steps:

1. Convert from iso to disk image format using hdiutil:

   
   hdituil convert –format UDRW -o ~/path/to/dest.img" ~/path/to/target.iso
   

2. Use diskutil to find out where the removable device has been mounted into the file system.

   diskutil list

3. Unmount the device using diskutil.

   diskutil unmountDIsk /dev/diskN

4. Use dd to copy the disk image to the raw device. Note you’ll need admin access for this and do remember that dd is destructutive. THINK before hitting that enter key:

   sudo dd if=~/path/to/dest.img of=/dev/rdiskN bs=1m 

5. Now eject the removable device:

   diskutil eject /dev/diskN

Hopefully useful… Selah.