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disk image

Last Week on My Mac: How APFS trims a disk image to size

How APFS can trim free space in a read/write disk image and transform it into a sparse file, so it uses storage more efficiently.

January 15, 2023 Macs, Technology

Which disk image format?

Plain read/write (UDRW), sparse image (UDSP), and sparse bundle (UDSB) compared for storage efficiency, performance, and convenience.

January 12, 2023 Macs, Technology

Sparse disk images in virtual machines

All you need to know about the sparse RAW disk images used inside lightweight VMs on Apple silicon Macs.

January 10, 2023 Macs, Technology

How plain disk images went sparse in Monterey

In Monterey and Ventura, regular read-write UDRW disk images can now be APFS sparse files, and work more efficiently than sparse images or sparse bundles.

January 9, 2023 Macs, Technology

Should you use a disk image or a volume?

Disk images originated in the 1960s, and are still valuable tools in modern macOS. They have their limitations, though, and in some cases should be replaced by APFS volumes.

January 7, 2023 Macs, Technology

Lightweight VMs are sparse files, and how to keep them compact

Virtual Machines for lightweight virtualisation on Apple silicon Macs rely on sparse files. Here are tips to ensure they stay small and don’t explode to full size.

January 5, 2023 Macs, Technology

Why won’t Ventura let me install that?

Download some vital free software, mount its disk image, run the Installer package there – but why does Ventura refuse to install it, and what you do?

December 16, 2022 Macs, Technology

Disk performance of lightweight macOS VMs on Apple silicon

Writing to the Data volume in a VM is dismally slow. Is using shared storage any quicker? What happens when you copy a VM to an external SSD, or to another Mac?

December 1, 2022 Macs, Technology

Using macOS versions beyond local volumes

T T Read More

It’s all too easy to lose all previous versions of a document: one false move to another volume, to iCloud, or shared over a network and they’ve gone. How can you preserve them?

August 8, 2022 Macs, Technology

A user’s guide to Disk Images

They have more options than most new cars. What are they, how do you use them, how to pick the most appropriate, and which tools to use.

July 11, 2022 Macs, Technology

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