Ok, I wasn’t really pirating Tiger… I was pirating Panther too…

Ok, so I wasn’t really pirating Tiger or Panther (no, not Jaguar either… what? Puma? You’ve got to be kidding me…). Actually, I was just trying to figure out how to do a few simple things:

1. Convert a .dmg file to a .iso or .bin / .cue file, so it could be burned on a PC
2. Burn that .dmg file (or what it was converted to)
3. Boot a Mac off this burned CD (because it was a bootable CD in the first place).

The whole “pirating Tiger” theme was just what all the posts I found about converting .dmg files and burning bootable CDs on a PC kept accusing the posters about. I imagine most of those assumptions were probably true, since Apple charges more for its OS than even Microsoft does, but still, they didn’t have to be rude about it, did they?

So anyway, just a few simple things, right? Sounds so painfully simple, right?

Wrong!

So, in order to help all those other people out there who may be having this same problem, and keep getting accused of pirating insert Apple OS here whenever they ask about it, I thought I’d post a working solution. Now, it’s quite possible that I found the longest route to victory, but this one certainly worked (at least for me). If you find a better way, please let us all know in a comment, just so we can help further the overall knowledge of the internet populace.

Without further delay, here are the steps to get a .dmg file burned (and bootable, if applicable) on a PC:

1. Download Mac Drive.
   It’s got an insanely short useage period (5 days?!), but the trial version will work!
2. Download Daemon Tools.
   Version 4 contains crapware… Find version 3.x!
3. Reboot, since both of these above products require it.
4. Download UltraISO.
   The trial version has some limits. I think that as long as a single file on your image isn’t over 300mb, you’ll be fine. I had an existing full version already, so I really can’t verify this. Know an alternative program? Please let me know!
5. Mount the .dmg file in Daemon Tools. Mac Drive should recognize it as being a Mac-formatted disc, and translate it all for you. Yippie skippy!
6. Using UltraISO, create a .iso (or other format) image from your mounted (and translated) .dmg file.
   Strictly speaking, you don’t need to do this. In my case, I wanted to be able to re-burn this disc after my 5-day Mac Drive trial, so I wanted a working copy for future use.
7. Burn your newly created .iso (or other format) file to a CD / DVD / Punch card with your favorite program.
8. …
9. Profit!

Ok, so I’m not exactly profiting off this… If you find out a way I can, please, don’t hold back! Still, the process works (I burned half a dozen Mac .dmg images using it, they all worked), and you don’t have to shell out any $$$ (assuming UltraISO worked for you). How can you not walk away happy??

Oh, by the way… I’m loving Tiger, so go crawl back in a hole somewhere you lousy forum trolls!