Open DMG File
DMG is used for disk image files on Macintosh computers running Mac OS X. This file extension replaces the older file extension IMG which was discontinued during the release of later series of Mac operating systems. You can open DMG file on Mac, Linux, and Windows operating systems but it will require additional software to be installed on Windows. Note that on Windows and Linux you cannot open every DMG file, since there are certain software limitations on DMG format variation.
DMG files are used by Apple for software distribution over the internet. These files provide features such as compression and password protection which are not common to other forms of software distribution file formats. DMG files are native to Mac OS X and are structured according to Universal Disk Image Format (UDIF) and the New Disk Image Format (NDIF). They can be accessed through the Mac OS Finder application by either launching the DMG file or mounting it as a drive.
DMG is also referred to as the Apple’s equivalent to MSI files in Windows PC. Non-Macintosh systems may access DMG files and extract or convert them to ISO image files for burning. Several applications are designed to offer this solution for Windows systems.
7-Zip and DMG Extractor are the best options to open DMG file on Windows because they are compatible with the most DMG variations. For Linux a built-in 'cdrecord' command can be issued to burn DMG files to CD's or DVD's.
Aside from the Finder application, you can open DMG files through Apple Disk Utility, Roxio Toast, and Dare to be Creative iArchiver for Mac platform. On the other hand, additional applications such Acute Systems TransMac, DMG2IMG, and DMG2ISO can be installed on Windows to fully support the files.
Read how you can open DMG files on Mac OS, Windows and Linux.
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DMG files are transferred over e-mail or internet using application/x-apple-diskimage multipurpose internet mail extensions (MIME) type.
Following file types are similar to DMG and contain disk images:
- ISO File - ISO disk image file
- IMG File - IMG disk image file
- VHD/VHDX File - Virtual Hard Drive image file
DMG is a file of Apple Disk Image. The Apple Disk Images are disk image files commonly used by the Mac OS X operating system. When opened, an Apple disk image is 'mounted' as a volume within the Finder. Several Apple proprietary disk image formats can be used to create these images, including the Universal Disk Image Format (UDIF) and the New Disk Image Format (NDIF). Apple disk images usually have the .dmg file extension.
Apple disk images allow secure password protection as well as file compression and hence serves both security and file distribution functions; they are most commonly used to distribute software over the Internet.
Universal Disk Image Format (UDIF) is the native disk image format for Mac OS X. Disk images in this format typically have a .dmg extension. New Disk Image Format (NDIF) was the previous default disk image format in Mac OS 9, and disk images with this format generally have a .img (not to be confused with raw .img disk image files) or .smi file extension. Files with the .smi extension are actually applications that mount an embedded disk image, thus a 'Self Mounting Image', and are intended only for Mac OS 9 and earlier. A previous version of the format, intended only for floppy disk images, is usually referred to as 'Disk Copy 4.2' format, after the version of the Disk Copy utility that was used to handle these images. A similar format that supported compression of floppy disk images is called DART. Apple disk image files are published with a MIME type of application/x-apple-diskimage.
Different file systems can be contained inside these disk images, and there is also support for creating hybrid optical media images that contain multiple file systems. Some of the file systems supported include Hierarchical File System (HFS), HFS Plus, File Allocation Table (FAT), ISO9660 and Universal Disk Format (UDF).
Open/Extract DMG File on Windows
Easy 7-Zip opens/extracts DMG file easily on Windows. The Easy 7-Zip was developed based on 7-Zip. 7-Zip is a famous open source file archiver. The Easy 7-Zip is an easy-to-use version of 7-Zip. The open source freeware keeps all features of 7-Zip and adds a few useful features that makes the software more user-friendly.
Easy 7-Zip works on Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/2008/2003/XP/2000 (both 32-bit and 64-bit compatible).
- Free Download Easy 7-Zip
- Install Easy 7-Zip by step-by-step instructions
- The installation will associate DMG with Easy 7-Zip automatically
- Double-click on DMG file to open DMG file with Easy 7-Zip
- Alternatively, Right-click on DMG file on Windows Explorer
- Done
You will see files or folders within the DMG file then, click button Extract to extract the DMG file.
And then, choose Extract files..., Extract Here, or Extract to 'folder' to extract the DMG file.
Easy 7-Zip Download Links:
You can install and use other alternative freeware that opens/extracts DMG file without burning the DMG file to disc. For example:
- Free DMG Extractor
- HFSExplorer
- PeaZip
Open/Extract DMG File on Mac
B1 Free Archiver opens/extracts DMG file on Mac. B1 Free Archiver is a free software for creating archive folder and extracting archive file. B1 Archiver works on all platforms - Windows, Linux, Mac and Android. The freeware supports most popular formats including DMG.
B1 Free Archiver is compatible with:
- Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks
- Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion
- Mac OS X 10.7 Lion
- Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
Alternative freeware that opens/extracts DMG file on Mac.
- Apple Disk Utility
- Keka
- GUI Tar
Open/Extract DMG File on Linux
You can use command mount to mount DMG file as a virtual drive.
First, you must login as a root user, and then create a directory for DMG image
# mkdir -p /mnt/macimage |
Use mount command as follows to mount DMG file called image.dmg:
# mount -o loop -t hfsplus image.dmg /mnt/macimage |
If the DMG is HFS file system, use:
# mount -o loop -t hfs image.dmg /mnt/macimage |
Change directory to list files stored inside an DMG image:
Wd Discovery For Mac.dmg
# cd /mnt/macimage # ls -l |
Unmount the DMG image, type:
# umount /mnt/macimage |
Alternatively, you can use p7zip to extract the DMG file. p7zip is the Unix command-line port of 7-Zip, a file archiver that archives with high compression ratios.
Install p7zip-full on CentOS and Fedora
# yum install p7zip-full |
Linux In Mac
Install p7zip-full on Debian and Ubuntu
$ sudo apt-get install p7zip-full |
Run Mac Software On Linux
List directories and files in DMG file
$ 7z l image.dmg |
Run Mac Dmg On Linux Windows 7
Extract DMG file on Linux
$ 7z x image.dmg |