EssayBoard

In case you don’t know how to burn an image on Mac, I’ll show you how to do so in this post.  What do I mean by burning an image?  No, it’s not like I’m telling you to take a picture, light a fire, and in the process may hurt yourself.  It’s more of when you have downloaded a file with the .iso extension, and need to have this file to be burned onto a CD or DVD.  There is a big different between burning an image and just burning an image, and I’m not talking about burning a real image, but I mean — oh, OK, I’ll stop this before you get overly confused.  What I’m trying to say is that you’re not actually burning an image if you just clone the data such as copying the same file with .iso extension onto a disc (i.e., CD or DVD).  By burning an image, you actually have to use a specific feature of burn an image from your CD/DVD burning software, because burn an image feature allows you to make the file with .iso extension becomes bootable.  Why is this important?  For an instant, when you download a Linux operating system, you can use burn an image feature of your burning software to make the Linux file becomes bootable — so the next time you insert the Linux CD/DVD that you had burned into a fresh boot computer, it will recognize the Linux CD/DVD so the installation process can start.

Alright, enough with that already, so how do I actually burn an image using Mac?  It’s simple really, and you don’t need to buy an app or third party software to do so.  Latest Mac OS X (i.e., Snow Leopard) has an application which is known as Disk Utility, and this very application will do the job.  So let fire up your Disk Utility by going to Applications >> Utilities >> Disk Utility.  At Disk Utility, go to File >> Open Disk Image, and choose your file with .iso extension.  Click on the file with .iso extension on the left panel of Disk Utility, and click on Burn icon at the top of Disk Utility.  Just make sure you have placed a blank CD or DVD inside your Mac before clicking on the Burn icon.  That’s all, really!  Oh, one last thing, Mac tends to verify its burning content before it says good bye, have a good day to you, but this process can be extremely bothersome and time consuming.  If you don’t care or have confidence in Mac’s ability to burn an image or whatever, then you can click on the skip option when Mac tries to verify the burning content.  Clicking on skip verify option so your burning process can complete faster.

To clean up the whole process, after you finish burning an image with Mac, you can go to your Desktop, right click on the mounting image and eject it.  Inside Disk Utility, make sure to right click on the file with .iso extension on the left panel, and click on remove to remove it from your Disk Utility.  Have fun with burning an image on Mac!