Software:DiskImageMounter

From HandWiki
Short description: Utility in Mac OS X
DiskImageMounter
DiskImageMounter.png
Developer(s)Apple Computer
Stable release
10.8 / June 27, 2012; 12 years ago (2012-06-27)
Operating systemMac OS X
TypeDisk image emulator
Websitewww.apple.com

DiskImageMounter is the utility that handles mounting disk volume images in Mac OS X, starting with version 10.3. DiskImageMounter works by either launching a daemon to handle the disk image or by contacting a running dæmon and have it mount the disk.

Like BOMArchiveHelper, DiskImageMounter has no GUI when double-clicked; doing so does nothing. The only GUI the program ever displays is a window with a progress bar and mount options (cancel or skip verification) or an error report if it could not mount the image. It is found in /System/Library/CoreServices/DiskImageMounter.app.

Starting with version 10.7, Apple "removed double-click support for images using legacy metadata."[1] DiskImageMounter will not be able to open .img (NDIF only), .smi (self mounting), .dc42 (Disk Copy 4.2), and .dart (DART) disk image formats that was previously supported in version 10.6 and earlier.

Image formats supported

DiskImageMounter supports a variety of disk image file types:[2]

  • Apple Disk Image (.dmg, com.apple.disk-image)
  • UDIF disk images (.udif, com.apple.disk-image-udif); UDIF segment (.devs, .dmgpart, com.apple.disk-image-udif-segment)
  • self mounting image[nb 1] (.smi, com.apple.disk-image-smi)
  • DVD/CD-R master image (.toast, .dvdr, .cdr, com.apple.disk-image-cdr, com.roxio.disk-image-toast)
  • disk image segment (dmgpart)[2]
  • raw disk image (OSTypes: devr, hdrv, DDim, com.apple.disk-image-raw)
  • PC drive container (OSTypes: OPCD, com.apple.disk-image-pc)
  • ISO image (.iso, public.iso-image)
  • sparse disk image (.sparseimage, com.apple.disk-image-sparse, .sparsebundle)

As of macOS 11.0, support for the following formats has been removed:

  • Disk Copy 4.2 disk image[nb 1] (.dc42, .diskcopy42, com.apple.disk-image-dc42)
  • DART disk image[nb 1] (.dart, com.apple.disk-image-dart)
  • NDIF disk image[nb 1] (.ndif, .img, com.apple.disk-image-ndif); NDIF disk image segment (.imgpart, com.apple.disk-image-ndif-segment)

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Mac OS Classic legacy disk image format supported by DiskImageMounter under Mac OS X versions 10.3—10.6[1] As of version 10.9, hdiutil can still convert these formats but unable to open or write them, and version 11.0 removed all support.

References

See also

  • Disk Copy - this program's predecessor.
  • hdiutil - command line tool counterpart that ships with macOS
  • FastDMG - free alternative replacement for DiskImageMounter