Help running .ISO of hard drive?

Question

Level 1

8 points

Help running .ISO of hard drive?

Hello, all. I have an .iso of the hard drive of an Apple computer which ran OS X Mountain Lion.

How can I "run" this .iso file so that it's like I'm using the computer whose hard drive it's a copy of? (Or would this even be possible?)

Would I need Apple hardware? Would I need a copy of Mountain Lion aside from the one that's contained in the hard drive I copied?

I don't have access to any Apple machines right now -- just an HP desktop and laptop, both running Windows 7.

Thanks in advance for any information, suggestions, etc. anyone has to offer. 🙂

OS X Mountain Lion (10.8)

Posted on Sep 8, 2016 3:29 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

362,153 points

Sep 8, 2016 3:50 PM in response to JenJayApple

You can't. You would need to clone the content to a real Mac drive. It cannot be used on a Windows computer.

Reply

Answer 2

JenJayApple Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 8, 2016 6:08 PM in response to Kappy

Actually, I forgot to mention this, but the .iso file is on an iPod (in hard drive mode, if that's the correct term) with several terabytes of memory.

Would I need to have Apple hardware (i.e., an Apple computer) to use the file?

Reply

Answer 3

Kappy

Level 10

362,153 points

Sep 8, 2016 10:39 PM in response to JenJayApple

Yes. Cannot boot from an iPod. Can boot from a USB drive, hard drive, SSD, or Thunderbolt drive. For a Mac an ISO is not a bootable image nor is a .dmg file. Nor can a non-Mac be booted into OS X regardless of media because Windows can neither read from nor write to a Mac formatted drive. Furthermore, the Apple license would be violated were you to try. OS X cannot be used on any other hardware than a Mac.

Reply

Answer 4

JenJayApple Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 9, 2016 8:08 AM in response to Kappy

Maybe I misspoke and .iso is not the format of the disk image I created.

Whatever I did, I did entirely with Apple hardware and software, and I formatted the iPod as an external hard drive that I connected to the Mac whose drive I copied with a USB cord.

How can I view the disk image I created? I'm willing to purchase an Apple computer to do this. The information on the drive is extremely important for me to access.

Reply

Answer 5

Kappy

Level 10

362,153 points

Sep 9, 2016 12:46 PM in response to JenJayApple

You would need a Mac or third-party software for your PC that enables it to read a Mac formatted drive. However, if you truly have a disk image (.dmg or .iso) I do not know if you can also open it, but it would seem reasonable to assume the third-party software would make that possible. If you actually just copied files to the iPod's drive rather than made a disk image that was copied to the iPod, then the files could be seen on a Mac or on the PC with the third-party software.

If you wish to recover your data onto a PC, then your best option would be getting third-party software for the PC.

Reply