How to backup a mounted & encrypted disk image?

I have read all the posts about creating a sparse bundles. I guess this allows you to backup the disk image as long as it is not mounted? Will it still backup if it is mounted? Will it be usable when I restore it?
What if all I want to do is just backup the mounted disk and not the image? I did some tests and it seems to work. When I look at the backup on a different machine by taking over the disk, I see the volume as a possible restore and I see the files. Am I missing something? I thought I had read that this does not work? I do realize that the backup is not very secure since I can now restore files on an image I had intended to maintain secure. It would be nice if time machine allowed me to backup in an encrypted format the required some password for the restore. Create sparse bundle on that backup disk and backup to that mounted image?
Steven

Well since it is encrypted, no matter how you delete it, it should remain secure. That is an advantage of an encrypted file
However, if you want to over write the contents of the file, you can just drag it to the trash and select secure empty trash.
NOTE: if you have a lot of other deleted files in the trash, it is going to take longer to do the secure empty trash as those other files are also going to be securely erased. I've made the mistake of doing the secure empty trash with several hundred files in the trash, some of which were rather large files.

Similar Messages

Even though I have LCD font smoothing disabled, Mountain Lion still uses it in PDF views, Safari's location bar, Mail's message view, and the dialogs for mounting encrypted disk images.

Even though I have LCD font smoothing disabled, Mountain Lion still uses it in PDF views, Safari’s location bar, Mail’s message view, and the dialogs for mounting encrypted disk images. Is there any solution to this problem? Also diabled the Smoothing in the SystemPrefs and also via Terminal. Font smoothing is still there. Very annoying, especially in PDF attachments in Apple Mail.

Try feeding Safari a user-defined CSS file with font-smoothing tweaks (including none). The filename and its filesystem location are arbitrary. Use your favorite coding editor.
Safari > Preferences > Advanced > Style Sheet:
Here is an example with all elements uncommented. Pick the one that works best for your Safari viewing and comment out the others:
Preview. Try Preview > Preferences > PDF > Smooth text and line art (uncheck)

My Automator script to backup files to encrypted disk image

Hi there. I have a question regarding Automator and Encrypted disk images. I've put together a workflow that grabs files in my home folder. My home folder is utilizing FileVault. I'm grabbing things like my iphoto library, documents folder and such. On an external usb drive I've created an encrypted disk image about 100GB. My goal is for the automator action to "successfully" mount > copy > unmount the encrypted image.
As of right now, the script works, but gives an error at the end of the copy, not allowing a successful unmount of the dmg. Is there something I'm doing wrong? I browsed through all the files after copying and they are all there, the folder sizes match up 100%.
I guess I could just use a program that does this, but, I find it much easier clicking on a shortcut in my dock to run the script and go away for 10 - 15 mins.
If it would help to view the script, let me know and we'll work something out.
Thanks

The popup box says:
The action "Copy Finder Items" encountered an error. Check the action's properties and try running the workflow again.
And the Automator workflow log says:
Can't read directory contents: /Volumes/Backup
But as I said, clearly it works and reads/writes to the encrypted dmg because all the files are there. What I do is just select all the folders inside the drive first, and delete/empty the trash first before running the action. This is the second step once I know this is working. So that I don't have to manually delete them everytime before running the script.
So to answer your question, the drive is empty, and the dmg is empty, allowable for a maximum 100GB of storage.
I think it might be something to do with copying files to an encrypted disk image, but, I can't find any help anywhere on this.
Thanks

Nested items in docked folder inaccessible on mounted encrypted disk image

When I click on a folder in the dock, then select a nested folder and try to open it, I get the error message:
"The application cannot be launched. -35"
The folders in question reside on an encrypted disk image (which is mounted). If I remove the folder from the dock and then put it in the dock again, this fixes the problem until the disk image is unmounted, and then mounted again.
Are there any solutions? Thanks.
iMac G5 10.5.7

I finally discovered a quick and easy workaround for this problem.
Using Automator and Cocktail's "built in" Automator actions, I created a script with 2 actions. The first clears the user's dock caches (using Cocktail). The second action is a shell script that relaunches the dock. The script is simply "/usr/bin/killall Dock" (case sensitive, without the quotes).
I saved the Automator script as an application and dragged the app into my Dock. Now, all I have to do is click on the app in the dock, and click allow in the window that pops up (allowing the app to obtain the password for Cocktail from my keychain) and then the nested items then become immediately available. I don't have to reset any prefs regarding the appearance or behavior of the docked folders. Problem solved!

Encrypted Disk Image on TC?

Can anyone check for me whether Time Machine will backup to an encrypted disk image on Time Capsule?

The Time Capsule doesn't show up one the left side of the screen in disk utility. When you click the "new image" icon on the top of the screen in disk utility a menu pops up, there should be a down arrow button next to the top line that says "save as", click that down arrow button. The middle part of the popup menu should expand. To the left on the expanded part your time capsule should be listed under "shared". Select your time capsule, and then click the arrow button again next to the "save as" line. Your time capsule should now be shown on the second line that says "Where". Now pick what you want to call the disk image and type it in the "save as box". In the other pull down lines you can pick how big and what format to make the image. Then click "create" and that should do it. Does that make sense to you?

How do I mount a disk image that won't open?

I have an external drive Samsung 500 GB that was failing. I think my MacBook Air (10.6.8) caused it to fail because it wouldn't allow me to eject the disk even though I forced quit all programs. I eventually had to just unplug the drive and this caused the external disk to fail as it had not been ejected properly. Not my fault. It's the MBA's fault for not letting me eject the disk. Now the Samsung disk won't mount properly and I get a message that the drive is failing and I should save the data.
Anyhow, I used the free version of Data Rescue 3 to try and save the data on the failing Samsung 500 GB drive and move it onto a brand new Toshiba 1 TB drive.
I was unable to use the normal scanning function of Data Rescue 3 as the hardware of the drive was too damaged, and so I used the clone function on Data Rescue 3 to clone the data onto a non-failing hard drive, with the intent of restoring the data later.
I am not sure if I was successful in making the disk image. It hung up at the 99.6% point for about 12 hours when I decided to give up on it, and I shut down Data Rescue so I could eject the hard disks.
However, it would not let me do it. I tried force ejecting but still I could not eject the disks.
I ended up just unplugging the drives. I think the Samsung drive died almost completely then because it made a whole lot of clicking noises after that (it was only making a few clicking noises before that).
Anyhow, I plugged the Toshiba 1 TB drive into the computer again and used Data Rescue to scan the drive with the disk image on it to see if I could detect files on that drive.
It opened up the structure and I was able to see that most or all of the files were there (abbout 450GB of data) just from seeing the information about the files in the structure tree - the labels of the files (file type labels such as jpg, mp4 etc) and the size of the files, although I could not open up the files to check all of them.
I tested out the restore function of Data Rescue by downloading one file (<10MB) file. I am using the free version and can download one file for free to test things out.
It worked and I was able to save that file onto a second external drive (Western Digital 500 GB) I had plugged in. I had bought this drive just to do the data rescue.
So I think the files are salvageable and the disk image is OK.
However, when I tried to open the disk image in Disk Utility, by opening it as the source and choosing the WD drive as the destination I could not open it. I got an error message. I can't remember what the message was.
I tried just opening the disk image in Finder by just clicking on the disk image but it won't mount.
Is that because my hard drive doesn't have enough space? My Desktop on the MBA only has 12 GB free and the WD drive has only 500 GB on it even though the disk image is about 501 GB.
I don't know why the disk image is that size when the failing Samsung drive only had 450 GB of data on it.
Anyway, what should I do to mount the disk image?
I want to mount the disk image so that I can copy or move the files from it to another external drive so that I can save those files.
Is it because the WD is only 500 GB or does it mean there's a problem with the disk image I made?
Should I try Carbon Clone Copy? I use that to make backups of my MBA internal HDD though I have never used it for opening or making disk images.
I have never dealt with disk images before except for dmg files of applications downloaded from the internet.
I am trying to avoid using Data Rescue 3 as I have to pay for it and if there is a free option, such as Disk Utility, CCC or other, I want to try it to restore the data in the disk image.
Sadly, I think the Samsung drive is ruined beyong repair as it's making a lot of clicking sounds and doesn't mount properly in Disk Image and I get a message that it's beyond repair or something like that in Disk Utility.
So I am relying on the disk image I made on the Toshiba drive to restore my files.
(I think it was the last movie file that caused the problem because it was when I was trying to copy it onto the Samsung external drive, all the problems began - hanging up when copying it, not being able to eject the Samsung disk, causing hardware issues on Samsung disk and getting warning messages on Disk Utility.)
BTW, I learned how to eject a drive when it won't eject the normal way, I have to use command window and type in commands, but that's another post ....
Any advice?
I am thinking of going out and buying a second 1 TB external drive so that I have a disk with enough space to open the 501GB disk image on it, just in case that was the sole problem.
However, I am not sure that is the case, and I think there may be a problem with the disk image or I am not going the right way about opening it.
Thanks for any advice.

I think I've found the solution to this problem.
http://superuser.com/questions/19426/im-unable-to-mount-a-dmg-getting-a-no-mount able-filesystems-error
I am following the instructions here:
I ran into a similar situation. I did what simonair suggested and I received a message in Terminal that Volume mounted successfully. However It did not help me access the mounted Volume neither was I able to confirm the mounted Volume. Nor was I able to mount the image using Disk Drill or even scan through. Nothing succeeded.
Here is what I did to solve my problem. I see that in this post some suggested that we should convert name.dmg to writable file. I used the command from Terminal to convert but was not successful. INSTEAD alternatively, I used Disk Utility, attached the Volume (yes I got the same message again, ''no mountable system files'' however, Disk Utility nevertheless attached the image, which I was able to do before anyways. This time, I selected it and then clicked New image, and then selected image format read/write, not the compressed option. I created a new image. This time this image was writable however, it still would not mount using Simonair's solution. However, this time I was able to scan it with Disk Drill with exact file locations and folder hierarchy as I had. Recovering all from thereon was a breeze. Just remember: when you create new image of an attached volume and chose not compressed but read/write, you need to have a disk with exact amount of space that totals the total space allocated within that name.dmg file (not the amount of space the data takes). Mine was huge, and luckily I had an external disk with enough space to do that and it took about 5 hours for about 400GB of disk allocation. Good luck.
And so far it seems to be working. Even though the volume is grayed out on the left side of Disk Utility, I am still able to select it as the source for making a new disk image. I chose Read and Write and no compression.
The only thing I might be doing differently is that instead of choosing the disk image as the source, I chose the volume as the source. The volume is grayed out, but the disk image is not.
It seems to be working all right. Keep my fingers crossed.
If this doesn't work, I will use Data Recovery 3 as a last resort.

Time Machine Backups of Encrypted Disk Images, Part 2

Hi:
If Time Machine is backing up a hard drive that contains a subset encrypted disk image as part of its contents, and this encrypted disk image is mounted (in an unencrypted state) where the enclosed data has been changed/manipulated in any fashion, what and when does Time Machine backup?
In other words, does the data in the encrypted disk image only change when the encrypted disk image is unmounted? Or is it somehow backed up real time even when the encrypted disk image is mounted on the desktop in an unencrypted state while Time Machine is working?
Sorry I can't explain this very well, but hopefully the gist is clear.
Thanks!
(OS 10.8.2)

Time Machine doesn't back up a disk image file while it's mounted, whether encrypted or not.

Encrypted Disk Image and Backup

If one uses Apple’s Disk Utility to create an encrypted disk image, what happens when SuperDuper, Time Machine, or any other backup utility is running while the (unencrypted) image is mounted on the desktop?
Are both the encrypted image and the unencrypted data transferred to the backup device? Or is just the secure encrypted data copied to the destination?
Nothing urgent on this, just curious. Thank you!

I've played around with this a little. As best I can tell, when cloning an entire HD volume both CCC and SuperDuper will always copy an image file (.dmg, .sparsebundle, etc) that resides that on that HD, whether or not that file's disk image is mounted at the time. However the contents of the mounted disk image volume will not be copied separately, and so If the disk image is encrypted, no unencrypted content will get transferred this way. However as mentioned in the SuperDuper link above, it's better to unmount the image in any event, in order to ensure that the underlying .dmg or .sparsebundle file gets copied faithfully.
If you want to copy the contents of a mounted disk image with CCC or SuperDuper, you can do so as a completely separate procedure from copying the HD. If you first mount the image (giving a password if it was encrypted), that mounted image will appear as an independent volume in the "source list" of CCC or SuperDuper, and you can choose that volume as a source for the copy procedure. You would need to designate a different target volume as well, so as not to overwrite your HD clone. If the disk image was encrypted and you deliberately copy its mounted image separately in this fashion, the resulting files on the target will not be encrypted.

How does one save new files to an encrypted disk image?

I encrypted a particular folder, and used a sparse image to leave plenty of room, as well as using read/write permissions, but I don't see how to save new files to the encrypted folder.

So, I guess you have to save the file to the desktop and then drag it to the mounted disk?
No, you should be able to save directly to a mounted disk image via a dialogue box. There is no need for an intermediate step. As long as the encrypted disk image is mounted, it is open and appears to be just another folder.
As an experiment, open a Textedit document and save it to the mounted (open) disk image via Save As in Textedit. It should be able to do that.

Encrypted disk image mounting

I'm trying to find a way to make an AppleScript that will mount an encrypted disk image and enter the password for it automatically. I can make it open all right, but I can't figure out how to make it enter the password (the 'with password' command doesn't seem to work, I'm assuming it only works on remote volumes?).
Any help would be appreciated.

Something like this should work:
<pre>
set myResult to display dialog "Enter password:" default answer "" with hidden answer
set thePW to text returned of myResult
set cmd to "echo -n \"" & thePW & "\" | hdiutil attach /path/to/encrypted/disk/image.dmg -stdinpass"
do shell script cmd
</pre>
There are some security concerns with passing a command string to "do shell script" that contains your password. If other users log on to your machine they could see your password if they happened to be watching the process list at just the right time.
Steve

Encrypted disk image mount error

When I try to open one particular encrypted disk image, a Warning dialog box opens with the following message:
The disk image you are opening may be
damaged and could damage your system.
Are you sure you want to open this disk image?
If I answer yes, the image mounts and I can see at least the one file I tried.
I don't want to risk ruining the contents of the disk image, so I am not using
it anymore, and have run Disk Utility/First Aid on it.
By running this script while Disk Utility "Repairs Disk":
{ while [ 1 ]; do ps axlwww >> psout; sleep 1; done; }
I can see that Disk Utility runs:
/sbin/fsck_hfs -y -f -g /dev/disk1s2
to check a mounted disk image. This works fine on a good encrypted disk image,
but Disk Utility shows these errors for the broken one:
A Warning dialog box opens with the following message:
First Aid failed
Disk Utility stopped repairing "Safe" because the
following error was encountered:
The underlying task reported failure on exit
and the first aid window shows:
Verify and Repair disk "Safe"
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Invalid sibling link
Volume check failed.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
1 volume could not be repaired because of an error
Any ideas how to fix this? I tried running
/sbin/fsck_hfs -y -f -r /dev/disk1s2
from the terminal, but it complains:
** /dev/rdisk1s2
** Checking HFS Plus volume.
** Checking Extents Overflow file.
** Checking Catalog file.
** Cannot repair volume when it is mounted with write access.
** The volume Safe could not be repaired.
and running it on the parent .dmg file doesn't work at all.
Thanks,
Scott

Well, I wish you luck, but haven't seen many people fix busted images.

Encrypted disk image sometimes mounts without password

I have an encrypted sparsebundle disk image containing sensitive information. On occasion (maybe one time out of ten), I'm able to mount it without being prompted for the password.
The password for the image is not stored in my keychain. Can anyone offer advice on this issue?

I was having exactly this same problem!
I keep a small encrypted disk image storing sensitive banking information. I do NOT have the option to store passwords in Keychain checked, and I verified that the password is not being stored in Keychain.
Yet, when I double-clicked the supposedly encrypted sparsebundle disk image, it opened right up and mounted - no password required! Unbelievable, right? So I started to investigate.
I first noticed this behaviour in Mountain Lion, I'm running 10.8.4 on a 2.7 GHz 15" MBPr.
In past versions of OS X I would mount the volume to work on it by double-clicking on the disk image, enter my passowrd, and then Eject the volume either by dragging to the trash or clicking the Eject button on the Sidebar. The next time I would try to access the disk image by double-clicking it, it would again prompt for a password. All good.
What seems to be happening in ML is, using the same workflow, even though the volume is disappearing from Finder, the disk image is not actually being unmounted!
When I go to Disk Utility, the disk image is still mounted, but the volume is grayed out. When I Eject the disk image in Disk Utility, it then reverts to the expected bahaviour, and double-clicking on the disk prompts for a password.
So the workaround seems to be when finished working on the volume, go to Disk Utility and manually Eject the disk image (as opposed to just the volume it mounts) to ensure it has unmounted and is thus again encrypted. The reason for it sometimes requiring a password, sometimes not is probably because after a restart of the computer it would unmount all disks, and then be unable to re-mount it until the password is entered. But in between, unless you were aware of this behaviour anyone with access to the disk image can view its contents.
What a terrible security flaw IMO, as there is no visual indication in Finder that the disk image is still unprotected after you unmount its volume and that icon disappears! I'm surprised this hasn't gotten more attention.
Incidentally brian_c, I tried to look at your linked videos but it returns the message that the videos violated the TOS of the site...?

Encrypted Disk Image mounts without Password

I've created a new encrypted disk image so that I can store sensitive documents and did it carefully, step by step,(per instructions from www.macworld.com/2425) but after I unmounted, then remount, it doesn't ask me for a password. It just mounts as if it were a regular file. Am I suppose to unmount the volume and drag the disk image to the trash? I don't know what else to try.

The Mac uses and encrypted database of keys called the "Keychain". When you login, it opens the "login" keychain using your login password. That keychain can be used to provide passwords for applications and services, and form data for web sites. In this particular case, the password for your encrypted disk image is being stored in the keychain and automatically provided.
If another user attempted to open the disk image, the disk image mounter would first look in his keychain and then the system keychain for a key to open it with. Finding none, it would prompt the user to specify the key (password). If the user supplies the correct password, the system would put it in his keychain for safe keeping, and the user would then be able to open the image again without supplying the password.
You can remove the key from your keychain by opening up /Applications/Utilities/Keychain Access, selecting the "login" keychain, and then looking for an entry with a name that matches the .dmg file in question. Highlight it, and then press the delete key to delete it. The next time you attempt to open it, it will prompt you for a password.

Create encrypted disk image with OS install disk utility.

I thought to make a full backup of Macintosh HD, and followed instructions in /kb/ht1553. However, every time I tried to creae an encrypted disk image, it barfed with "Failed - User interaction required". I assume it needed the encryption password, but for some reason was unable to display a prompt for this. Anyone know how to fix this? Thanks, Stephen.

Create an encrypted sparse disk image instead of from folder, mount it, and then drag & drop your files into ii.

Encrypted disk image access privileges

Hi,
I use an encrypted disk image to store my important documents.
It remains mounted most of the time because I keep accessing or modifying files there (but at least, I know they're not accessible to anyone stealing my machine, plus if feel more secure uploading the whole image disk for backup purposes and in some contexts, I am careful to unmount the disk image).
It is stored on a Mac that I occasionally share with other people.
I have noticed that when these other people log into their account, they have access to the content of the mounted image disk.
Does anyone know a way to prevent that access? I have already tried removing all access privileges to any users, both on the disk image file and on the mounted volume but that did not change anything at all (only I and the special user "staff" have any privileges to the file and the mounted volume).
Does anyone have any idea how I can get MacOS X to hide the volume to any other users than me?
Thanks!

Where is it stored – in your home folder?
Select your_image.sparsebundle (may have a different file extension)
press command + i
set permissions
     me r+w, staff r (is fine), everyone no
mount the volume (doubleclick)
press command + i
set permissions
     me r+w, everyone else no
uncheck
     ignore ownership

How to backup a mounted & encrypted disk image?

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