AppFlow

There are many situations where it could be useful to turn something on your Mac into an ISO file. An ISO is a digital disk image, and are normally burnt to a CD after downloading off a website. Sometime though you need to be able to create a disk image, weather it be to make it available for download from your website or to backup on your computer for use again in the future.

In order to create an ISO file from files on OS X simply fire up Disk Utility (in Applications/Utilities for those who don’t use an quick launcher) and follow the steps outlined below.

1. First ensure the folder or disk you want is on the sidebar, if it is missing click and drag it on. If you are using a CD or USB drive it should have appeared automatically
2. Next click the “New Image” button on the tool bar and then select “DVD/CD Master from the “Image Format” drop-down. Hit save and let Disk Utility do it’s thing.
3. When Disk Utility has finished doing what must be done navigate to your image in Finder and select it, then hit enter to rename it. Change everything from after the dot from “cdr” to “iso” and hit enter.
4. On the dialogue that should now appear asking you to confirm that you want to change the file extension select “Use iso”
5. Thats it, there is no Step five.

Why did that work? You only changed the extension.

A CDR and ISO file are essentially exactly the same file format, CDR is just Apple’s interpritation of the ISO extension. That same trick can be used, for example, with M4V and MOV files. These two extension are essentially the same file format and so are interchangeable.

Did you find this quick tip useful? Got something you think the masses should know about? Let us know below and we’ll be sure to look into it.