Files with the DMG extension are disk images created in the Mac OS X operating system. Since this is a proprietary format of Apple, Windows and Linux do not support it, but...
You can use files of this type in various operating systems if you know their secret. Today I will tell you how to open DMG in Windows, Ubuntu, as well as in their native Mac OS X environment.
Windows: Opening and mounting DMG into a virtual drive in UltraISO
(paid utility with a fully functional trial period, license price - $29.95) - one of the most popular Windows applications for working with disk images. To view the contents of a DMG file or add/remove any objects from it, just load it into the program through the context menu command " To open with»:
Or run the application and specify the path to the DMG image through the menu " File» – « Open».
UltraISO allows you not only to view and edit image files, but also mounts them into a virtual DVD drive so that the user can work with them in the same way as with real discs. However, with DMG this trick may not work - the image is mounted, but the system refuses to display its contents. The solution is to convert to a Windows-friendly ISO format.
How to do it:
- Upload the DMG file into the application.
- Open the menu " Tools" and select " Convert"or click the button shown in the screenshot on the top panel.
- In a new window, in the list " Output Format", check " StandardISO" and press " again Convert».
If the source is large, the operation will take 10 minutes or more.
After conversion, open the resulting ISO image in the program, press F6 or go to the menu section “ Tools" and select the command " Mount to virtual drive».
In the next window, click “ Mount».
After that, work with the ISO image as you would a DVD.
Other tools for working with DMG files in Windows
UltraISO is perhaps the most functional Windows application for working with DMG images, but not the only one. In addition to it, files of this type can be opened:
- Free archivers and . However, in them the contents of the DMG file do not have such a detailed structure as in UltraISO. The comparison is shown in the screenshot:
- – a paid utility ($48) for opening Mac OS X objects in Windows, burning them to CD/DVDs and creating installation media.
- – another tool for opening DMG in Windows, also paid (€ 7.95).
- – a free converter of disk images of various formats to ISO, including compressed and encrypted DMG files, without losing the functionality of the latter.
Ubuntu: Mounting a DMG image into a virtual drive
To mount disks in Ubuntu, the utility is most often used. This is not the only application with such functions, but it is one of the few that supports the DMG format.
After installing and launching Mounty, a CD-shaped icon will appear in the system tray. Clicking on it opens a list of program commands. Just specify the location of the DMG file and click “ Open disk image" so that it is mounted into a virtual drive. After that, work with it as you would with a regular DVD.
Another application that can mount DMG images into the Ubuntu virtual drive is called Acetone ISO. Like Mounty, it installs through the App Center and creates a tray icon when launched. Click on it, select the command " Mount image" and specify the path to the desired object.
Using DMG in a related Mac OS X environment
Mac OS X application installers are usually distributed in the DMG format. Unlike , they are also disk images containing the program. To open such a file and, accordingly, begin the installation, just double-click on it - the system will automatically mount it into a virtual drive. Drag the file with the .app extension from this “drive” to the Applications folder, and unmount and delete the installer.
To dismantle, click on the triangle icon located to the right of the DMG image name, or click the command “ Unmount" To delete, click " Remove».
In addition to program installers, any other OS X object can be packaged into a DMG file, for example, a folder or an operating system installation package. The built-in application is used to view and retrieve content " Disk Utility", which is stored in the Application - Utilites directory.
Available actions - opening in the utility itself, opening in the Finder, checking, restoring, deleting, viewing contents and information, managing partitions, etc., are collected in the context menu of the mounted object and in the right half of the utility window. I think it won't be difficult to figure out what's what.
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How to open a DMG file on Windows, Ubuntu and Mac OS X updated: April 14, 2016 by: Johnny Mnemonic
Hello friends, today I will write a few words about the dmg format. Many users have encountered it more than once. The problem is that not everyone knows how to open a dmg file. This extension can hide anything, for example, movies, games or music. After downloading one of these files, the user may find the extension dmg. In fact, opening such a file is quite easy, I will show several ways how this can be done.
Before we start looking at the methods, I want to say what the dmg extension is. It's very simple - it's a disk image. You can imagine that the information was recorded on some kind of CD, but the image is virtual. So, how do you open a file with the dmg extension?
If you had Mac OS, you could double-click to open these types of files. In most cases, users have Windows. In this operating system we can use various archivers, such as 7-Zip or other free utilities. There is also a way to convert DMG to ISO format, which opens without problems in modern operating systems.
Using the 7-Zip archiver
This archiver has quite broad capabilities. Opening files with various extensions is almost effortless. It's the same with the DMG format. The process of use is very simple. We go into the program, press the button "File", and then "Open" and look for the location of our file. We can extract the files without any problems.
If you don’t yet have this archiver on your computer, you can download it from this link and install it. When downloading, you can choose between 32-bit and 64-bit versions. I have Windows 10 64-bit, so I will download the x64 archiver.
If you want to change something in the image file, you won't be able to do it without extracting it.
Using free utilities
There are many special programs for opening DMG files, but do you know what’s most interesting? They work exactly the same as 7-Zip. The disadvantages in terms of editing files in the image are the same, that is, you cannot change the file without extracting it from the image.
So, one of the popular programs is DMG Extractor. Its interface is simple and similar to that of an archiver. There is a button "Extract", which allows you to extract files from the image.
We can find the file image if we click on the button "Open". In the button "Extract" there are three points:
- Extract files to last location
- Extract all files to... (you choose where to extract)
- Extract selected files to... (select several files and extract to the desired location)
As you can see, everything is quite simple. You can download this utility from here. The site is official, so there is nothing to be afraid of. There are two versions of the program - paid and free. The downside of the free one is that it does not work with images weighing more than 4 GB.
Finally, I will say that there is also a program called HFSExplorer. This is if you didn’t like the previous utility.
Convert DMG file to ISO image
Now we have reached the last option for opening dmg files. We can convert dmg to ISO format known to us. This can be done using the AnyToISO utility or Magic ISO Maker.
There is also a useful utility called UltraISO, although it is paid, but there is also a trial period, which is enough for you to complete the conversion.
This is the format of the Mac OS operating system. The operating system is used on Apple devices. This is a disk image. Used to install software on specified devices. Opening a dmg file on devices with the Apple system installed is not difficult. This type of data was created for it and is opened using standard tools. The archive itself is often compressed software (utilities, office applications, games, etc.) running under the Mac OS operating system. Accordingly, it will not install as a Windows program and will not work. In this case, you will need to first install one of the Apple OS emulators .
However, the dmg file is used not only with Apple applications
On a Windows system this storage can be used:
- data archiving;
- as a disk image.
Most often, Windows users encounter this format when installing software. Most are images posted online, created in this form for one reason or another.
What to do on Windows
There are quite a lot of programs in the Windows environment that recognize this format and are able to work with it (open the dmg file).
Opening a dmg file on Windows 8 is exactly the same as opening a dmg file on Windows 7, the same as on previous versions of Windows. The issue is not in modifying the operating system, but in the applications installed on it. Standard Windows tools do not recognize it; for them this is unknown information. In order to open dmg on Windows, you will need third-party software.
Use 7-Zip
7-Zip works with a number of formats: 7z, zip, tar, rar, arj, cab, iso, lzh, etc. Working with the archiver is easy. The operating system associates the names with the necessary extensions with the 7-Zip program. Items for working with archived data are added to the context menu (right mouse button).
Now, to use the application in Explorer, find the corresponding name and right-click on it. Select 7-Zip, then the required submenu item. You can choose from:
- Unpack. The computer will prompt you to enter the path where to extract;
- Unpack here. The data will be extracted to the current folder;
- Unpack into "name".
In addition, it is possible to view the contents of the source without unpacking.
Fig.2. To do this, select me – Open archiveThe application also allows you to test for integrity (menu item – Test).
Convert to ISO
Another possibility is converting dmg to iso. This is relevant if there is a disk image with a Windows application inside and then you need to mount it to install the software. The easiest way to convert is through the UltraIso program.
- Launch the UltraIso program.
- Next is the Tools menu, Convert submenu.
- We find the required name, the path where to place the final result.
- And click the Convert button.
other methods
There are many other programs to open the dmg extension.
No version of the Windows operating system supports the DMG file format. Therefore, for those who have already downloaded files with the .dmg extension and want to open them, you will also need to install one of the programs on your computer or laptop, which will be discussed in this article.
Let's look at three free tools for opening DMG in Windows 7 and 8.
DMG Extractor
DMG Extractor is probably the first and only tool designed exclusively for opening DMG files on Windows. Using this particular program allows you to avoid converting .dmg files to other formats.The only catch with the free version of DMG Extractor is that it can only open DMG files that are no larger than 4GB, but this shouldn't be a problem for most users.
DMG Extractor is very easy to use. First, download (the file is located a little lower in this article) and install it on your computer. After that, right-click on the DMG file and select “ To open with» → « DMG Extractor».
Download DMG Extractor for free
HFSExplorer
The second free program for opening DMG files. It is less popular because it also requires installation of Java SE Runtime Environment 5.0 or higher version before operation. And this is already an extra waste of time.Also, notably, HFSExplorer does not support all types of the DMG format. Which ones specifically, unfortunately, I cannot clarify. But this program also has its own advantage - it has no restrictions on the amount of memory of disk image formats, unlike DMG Extractor.
If you have installed on your computer antivirus program Can scan all files on your computer, as well as each file individually. You can scan any file by right-clicking on the file and selecting the appropriate option to scan the file for viruses.
For example, in this figure it is highlighted file my-file.dmg, then you need to right-click on this file and select the option in the file menu "scan with AVG". When you select this option, AVG Antivirus will open and scan the file for viruses.
Sometimes an error may occur as a result incorrect software installation, which may be due to a problem encountered during the installation process. This may interfere with your operating system link your DMG file to the correct application software, influencing the so-called "file extension associations".
Sometimes simple reinstalling 7-Zip may solve your problem by linking DMG to 7-Zip correctly. In other cases, problems with file associations may result from bad software programming developer and you may need to contact the developer for further assistance.
Advice: Try updating 7-Zip to the latest version to ensure you have the latest patches and updates.
This may seem too obvious, but often The DMG file itself may be causing the problem. If you received a file via an email attachment or downloaded it from a website and the download process was interrupted (such as a power outage or other reason), the file may become damaged. If possible, try getting a new copy of the DMG file and try opening it again.
Carefully: A damaged file can cause collateral damage to previous or existing malware on your PC, so it is important to keep your computer up-to-date with an up-to-date antivirus.
If your DMG file related to the hardware on your computer to open the file you may need update device drivers associated with this equipment.
This problem usually associated with media file types, which depend on successfully opening the hardware inside the computer, e.g. sound card or video card. For example, if you are trying to open an audio file but cannot open it, you may need to update sound card drivers.
Advice: If when you try to open a DMG file you receive .SYS file error message, the problem could probably be associated with corrupted or outdated device drivers that need to be updated. This process can be made easier by using driver update software such as DriverDoc.
If the steps do not solve the problem and you are still having problems opening DMG files, this may be due to lack of available system resources. Some versions of DMG files may require a significant amount of resources (e.g. memory/RAM, processing power) to properly open on your computer. This problem is quite common if you are using fairly old computer hardware and at the same time a much newer operating system.
This problem can occur when the computer is having trouble keeping up with a task because the operating system (and other services running in the background) may consume too many resources to open the DMG file. Try closing all applications on your PC before opening Mac OS X Disk Image File. Freeing up all available resources on your computer will provide the best conditions for attempting to open the DMG file.
If you completed all the steps described above and your DMG file still won't open, you may need to run equipment update. In most cases, even when using older versions of hardware, the processing power can still be more than sufficient for most user applications (unless you're doing a lot of CPU-intensive work, such as 3D rendering, financial/scientific modeling, or intensive multimedia work) . Thus, it is likely that your computer does not have enough memory(commonly called "RAM" or random access memory) to perform the task of opening a file.
