Burning encrypted DMGs

jginsbujginsbu
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Does anyone know if it's possible to burn encrypted DMGs in 10.3.1? When I select an encrypted DMG and burn it, I'm asked for my password to unencrypt the file, but then the unencrypted content is burn to the disc as a partition.



I've tried wrapping the encrypted DMG inside of an unencrypted read-only DMG, and burning that, so that I end up with a partition on the disc with an encrypted (and compressed) DMG on it. Unfortunately, when I try to expand and mount the encrypted DMG the Finder gets very unhappy (tells me to reinsert the media and wait for it to appear on the desktop) and I must Relaunch it in order to see the mounted image. Unmounting also requires a Relaunch. The system itself (not the Finder) does successfully mount and unmount the image, as I can see in /Volumes/. This seems to also be the case if I copy the DMG off the disc and onto my HD, although I can't be entirely sure that what the problem is -- maybe the Finder would mount it OK if not for the previous unhappiness.



All I'm really trying to do here is to backup my home directory securely, while compressing to squeeze extra backups onto multisession CD-Rs. Once I've got a good method worked out then I was planning to automate it with a shell script. Any suggestions on a better way of doing this would be welcome.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    der kopfder kopf Posts: 2,275member
    I have burned encrypted DMGs much like you seem to want to. This was when 10.2.x was still the flavor of the day, I could try it today though, on 10.3.1. In any case. What I did: I produced an encrypted image with disk copy (this is jaguar, remember). Then I opened up toast, and dragged the image on the MacOS Extended disk layout thing. It burned without causing a stir. What I got: a cd with the .dmg file on it as a file. When mounting, it asks for my password no problem, and mounts like a darling. I just tried to mount that disk under 10.3.1 and that provides no problems.
  • Reply 2 of 5
    der kopfder kopf Posts: 2,275member
    If you don't have toast, I'd try to burn, with Disk Utility, a folder containing the encrypted image of your liking.
  • Reply 3 of 5
    jginsbujginsbu Posts: 135member
    Thanks for the suggestions. I think that is basically what I've managed to do, however the Finder's unhappiness is now the problem. I can't quite nail down when/why it needs Relaunching to show the mount/unmount of the dmg, since I've now got it to do it without problems once. In any case, it looks like the dmg is OK, and it's just the Finder which is buggy -- nothing new there. (Hopefully Apple will get us a new Finder in 10.3.5. Wouldn't that be nice? Oh well...)



    Still, I'd really like to be able to have an encrypted partition burned to a CD-R, instead of just an encrypted DMG file. I take it that's not an option right now.



    Thanks again.
  • Reply 4 of 5
    eugeneeugene Posts: 8,254member
    I'm not sure what you're trying to do. Do you want some sort of encrypted CD filesystem that requires password access? That's not going to be possible with Disk Utility...or any utility for that matter.



    Do you just want to burn encrypted .dmgs direct to CDs? Please clarify. What are you trying to do exactly?
  • Reply 5 of 5
    jginsbujginsbu Posts: 135member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Eugene

    I'm not sure what you're trying to do. Do you want some sort of encrypted CD filesystem that requires password access? That's not going to be possible with Disk Utility...or any utility for that matter.



    Do you just want to burn encrypted .dmgs direct to CDs? Please clarify. What are you trying to do exactly?



    As I explained in my posts: preferably the former -- but that doesn't seem possible -- so then the latter, which is giving me the trouble with mounting and unmounting in the Finder, although not consistently (just usually).



    I'd certainly appreciate any suggestions, but I'm getting the feeling that there is some sort of problem with the Finder on this.
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