Zipware is a free DMG extractor software for Windows. Using this software, you extract and view the contents of a DMG file. Apart from DMG, you can also use it to extract files like ZIP, ZIPX, 7Z, RAR, RAR5, ISO, VHD, GZIP, BZIP2, TAR, etc. Uses the.dmg file extension. DVD/CD master: Changes the size of the image to 177 MB (CD 8 cm). Uses the.cdr file extension. Click Save, then click Done. Disk Utility creates the disk image file where you saved it in the Finder and mounts its disk icon on your desktop and in the Finder sidebar. To create and mount a VHD on a computer running Hyper-V, use the New-VHD and Mount-VHD cmdlets in the Hyper-V module (which is included in Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 but not enabled by default). Alternatively, open Disk Management and then choose Create VHD from the Action menu. Examples Example 1: Mounting an ISO.
Scroll down to “Update and Solution” to see how to get this to work.
Apple recently released new installers for Mac OS X/OS X/mac OS to deal with expired certificates:
Three of the six are links to the Mac App Store:
The other three are URLs to download DMGs:
- macOS Sierra – InstallOS.dmg
- OS X El Capitan – InstallMacOSX.dmg
- OS X Yosemite – InstallMacOSX.dmg
Today I tried (and failed) to create a new Virtual Machine in either Parallels or VMware Fusion using one of these DMGs, specifically, the El Capitan one.
I will explain what I did, and where I got stuck, in the hopes that someone else might figure out what I did wrong and point me in the right direction.
Download the DMG
Apple has created three DMGs for Yosemite, El Capitan, and Sierra, but couldn’t be bothered to give them useful names, so Yosemite and El Capitan are called ‘InstallMacOSX.dmg’ and Sierra is ‘InstallOS.dmg’.
Likewise the DMGs aren’t named usefully when you mount them either, so make sure you name the DMGs well when you download them to avoid confusion. Here’s how to download it and rename it at the same time
Mount the DMG
Open the ‘~/Downloads/InstallElCapitan.dmg’
That will leave you with
“/Volumes/Install OS X/InstallMacOSX.pkg”
Extract the App
Don’t try to install from that .pkg file, it probably won’t work unless the Mac you’re using is capable of running El Capitan:
Instead, open it with Suspicious Package which will let you examine the contents of the .pkg file, as shown here:
Note the area in the red box. Obviously that’s not the full installer, despite the .dmg being over 6 GB. But let’s export it anyway:
Save it to /Applications/ (or wherever you prefer, but that’s where I’ll assume it is for the rest of these instructions).
Don’t eject “/Volumes/Install OS X/InstallMacOSX.pkg” yet, we still need to get the actual .dmg from it.
Get the other DMG
Download The Archive Browser if you don’t already have it (it’s free!) and use it to open “/Volumes/Install OS X/InstallMacOSX.pkg”.
It will look like this:
Click on the triangle to the left of “InstallMaxOSX.pkg” to reveal its contents, and select the “InstallESD.dmg” file from it.
Once it is selected, choose “Extract Selected” from the bottom-left. Save it to ~/Downloads/ (it won’t be staying there long).
Ok, this part could be confusing…
When The Archive Browser exports the file, it will not just export the “InstallESD.dmg” file. First it creates a folder “InstallMacOSX” and then it created “InstallMacOSX.pkg” inside that folder, and the “InstallESD.dmg” file is put inside the .pkg… but you can’t see it, because the .pkg file won’t let you open it.
That’s OK, because we’re going to use Terminal.app to move the file into place anyway.
First we need to create a directory inside the ‘Install OS X El Capitan.app’ which we previously saved to /Applications/. We’re going to use the same folder for two commands and we want to make sure we get it exactly right both times, so we’ll make it a variable:
Then use the variable with mkdir to create the folder:
Dmg To Vmdk
and then we need to move the “InstallESD.dmg” file into that folder
Note: you probably want to trash the ‘~/Downloads/InstallMacOSX/InstallMacOSX.pkg’ (and its parent folder) now that it is empty, to avoid confusion later
Now if you look at the ‘Install OS X El Capitan.app’ in the Finder, it should show itself as 6.21 GB:
So close, and yet…
VMWare was willing to start trying to make a virtual machine using the app, but it failed when it came to the actual installation part:
I don’t know what to try next. Parallels would not use either the ‘Install OS X El Capitan.app’ or the ‘InstallESD.dmg’ to try to create a new virtual machine.
Update and Solution
I posted a question on the VMware Fusion support forum asking how to do this, and someone came up with a very clever solution, which I will replicate here in case others are interested. The idea is simple, but I never would have thought of it.
- Create a virtual machine of any version of macOS, even the current version that you are using on your Mac.
Inside the VM, download the .dmg (see below) and mount it.
Launch the .pkg inside the .dmg.
The .pkg seems to understand that it is inside a VM, and will install the app, which it would not do outside of the VM. Note that the Installer.app says that it will only take a few megabytes, but that is incorrect.
Find the “Install OS X El Capitan.app” (or whatever the app name is) in the /Applications/ folder inside the VM. It should be over 6 GB in size.
Copy the “Install….app” from the VM out to your actual Mac.
Create a new VM using the “Install….app” from the /Applications/ folder on your Mac.
Step #4 is the part that I never would have guessed. The .pkg would not install the app outside of a VM, but will install it inside of a VM.
This worked perfectly with the El Capitan .dmg file, and I’m currently doing the same with Yosemite and Sierra. Then I’ll try the older versions of Mac OS X from old installers that I have from before they disappeared from Apple’s servers.
Update 2
Turns out that Rich Trouton wrote about this technique back in early 2017:
But I wasn’t working with VMs at the time, so I must not not stored that in my long-term memory.
Update 3
I had saved the older installers for Lion, Mountain Lion, and Mavericks, which are no longer available for download.
Each of them still installed as a VM. Apparently they were not signed with the certificates that expired.
Older versions of Mac OS X (10.6.8 and before) are not available to virtualize.
If you often use VirtualBox- the finest free virtual machine program, you need to understand How to Convert Bootable ISO File to Virtual Disk VHD/VMDK. The practice of switching can also be harder than simply booting up Virtual in your ISO file, rather than utilizing an xx.iso file and then turning it into a virtual disc drive. It is handy, particularly once you would like to personalize the ISO file or use it for analysis. This guide will help you convert a bootable ISO file to VHD or even VMDK using the Command line. This tutorial will probably be the same for both Mac and Windows computers.
Related: How to convert macOS Installer File to DMG (.app to .dmg): 2 Step Easy Guide
ISO file has easily become the most widely-used format for OS installations. As it’s still possible to use the ISO file to immediately start any OS on a virtual system such as VirtualBox, VMWare, even should you not wish to set up an ISO file, switching it into VDI format (Virtual background ) would be the best thought. You’re able to think about the pre-conversion approach to convert an ISO file in a VHD/ VMDK utilizing VirtualBox.
With the help of our guide, you can easily convert:
ISO to VMDK
ISO to VDI
Following the article, you can directly boot into the operating system from VHD/VMDK. This is the way to utilize the Command line application (CMD) on Windows 10 and Terminal on macOS. It is also the exact same for both Linux OS.
Dmg To Vhd
Convert Bootable ISO File to Virtual Disk VHD/VMDK on Windows
Before proceeding, be sure to install the VirtualBox software on your PC. It may be downloaded free of cost as it is open-source software. We are going to begin using Windows computers by switching ISO files into VMDK.
File Required: Download VirtualBox for Windows
PART 1: ISO TO VMDK
1: Open Command Prompt (Powershell) on your Windows computer. Open Start, Type CMD and right-click and Run as Administrator.
2: Visit the VirtualBox directory at C:Program FilesOracleVirtualBox. From there, start cmd and execute the following command:
cd C:Program FilesOracleVirtualBox
3: From the VirtualBox directory, then run the command to automatically convert ISO into VMDK:
VBoxManage convertfromraw [file.iso] [file.VMDK]
You need to substitute the file.ISO together with the title of the IOS file, together with the file path directory
4: In our context, the ISO file is kept on the Desktop, and also the title of this ISO file has been ElCapitan.iso. You can follow the command under:
VBoxManage convertfromraw C:usersGuptaDesktopElCapitan.iso C:UsersGuptaDesktopElCapitan.vmdk
The file path from the command above is that the file path at which the ISO file is. After the process is complete, you can see the .VMDK file on your desktop.
PART 2: ISO TO VDI
The process is very similar, all you have to change is the VMDK extension to VDI
1: Open Command Prompt (Powershell) on your Windows computer. Open Start, Type CMD and right-click and Run as Administrator.
2: Visit the VirtualBox directory at C:Program FilesOracleVirtualBox. From there, start cmd and execute the following command:
cd C:Program FilesOracleVirtualBox
3: From the VirtualBox directory, then run the command to automatically convert ISO into VMDK:
VBoxManage convertfromraw [file.iso] [file.VDI]
You need to substitute the file.ISO together with the title of the IOS file, together with the file path directory
4: In our context, the ISO file is kept on the Desktop, and also the title of this ISO file has been ElCapitan.iso. You can follow the command under:
VBoxManage convertfromraw C:usersGuptaDesktopElCapitan.iso C:UsersGuptaDesktopElCapitan.vdi
The file path from the command above is that the file path at which the ISO file is. After the process is complete, you can see the .VDI file on your desktop.
Dmg To Vmdk Windows
The only difference between part 1 and part 2 is the extension of the new file. You need to simply replace .vmdk to .vdi. The rest of the process remains the same.
Convert Bootable ISO File to Virtual Disk VHD/VMDK on MAC
Converting a bootable ISO to a Virtual disc VHD/VMDK on Mac is nearly the same as using Windows. All you will need is to start Terminal in your Mac and execute the same commands. However, as stated previously, you want to install the VirtualBox program on your Mac. Otherwise, you will not be able to convert the ISO file into VHD/VMDK.
File Required: Download VirtualBox for MAC
1: Open Terminal on Mac by clicking Terminal in Spotlight.
2: Type in the following order on your Mac and hit Enter:
VBoxManage convertfromraw file.iso file.vhd
For Example, If you would like to convert the file file.iso to file.vmdk or file.vhd, use the following commands:
Convert Dmg To Vhd
VBoxManage convertfromraw ~desktop/catalina.iso ~desktop/catalina.vmdk
3: Based upon your Mac’s configuration, each of the conversion processes will take a couple of minutes. You may use the same controls on macOS, Windows, Linux OS by typing in the ‘VBoxManage‘ command.
The process remains the same for converting the .iso file to .vdi. You need to simply swap .vmdk with .vdi.
Don’t forget to follow the command-case, “VBoxManage” and use proper capitalization to prevent a “not found” error. This will be treated as a syntax error.
Dmg To Vhdx
Conclusion: How to Convert Bootable ISO File to Virtual Disk VHD/VMDK
Dmg To Vhd
That is the easiest way to convert a bootable ISO file into a Virtual disc VHD/VMDK. The process is really simple and straightforward. The commands may seem a little complicated, but I will advise you to copy-paste the commands from the post. If you face any issues, let us know in the comment section below.