DropDMG - 2.8.6

I have not tried DropDMG. I am using DMGConverter because it is free. So far (using Leapard or Tiger) I have not had any problems.

Dont ever remember a disk image referred to as compression...its a disk image like your hard drive isnt a compressed image. Before you post, check out your thoughts.

I had over 200 files in a folder, and wanted to put 48 of them into a disk image. Selected the 48 files, dragged and dropped them on the app, then watched while it made 48 separate .dmg files! I figured, 'OK, it's got to just be some preference that is inexplicably set the wrong way by default, yielding separate images for all files dropped.' But then I went to the prefs and couldn't find any setting to automatically make a single disk image out of multiple dropped files. Maybe it's there somewhere, but it certainly wasn't obvious. Or does the program require that I copy all the files to a separate folder first before I make them into a .dmg? That'd be lame. On the plus side, it should be an easy fix.

This great little utility exemplifies what using a Mac is supposed to be about. Just drop a folder on it, and it does its thing giving a DMG file with all the settings such as compression just the way you want them. A computer is supposed to be a time-saving tool, and the authors of DropDMG got it just right. It works with no fuss when you need it, and it doesn't insert any complications into the workflow path.

I've tried all the disk image creation apps I could find, and DropDMG is the only one that stayed on my HD. Nothing comes close.

Versatility. DropDMG lives up to it's name. A clever drop-menu in the app's small window selects a preset disk image type, for which there exists a plethora of options that puts Disk Utility to shame. One cool feature that's not so apparent: drop ANY format disk image file onto DropDMG, and DropDMG will convert the image to whatever type is preset, then recompress the image. If it is the same type of image as your preset, DropDMG will still recompress the image, which in most cases will result in a smaller image because DropDMG is so efficient. I tried this with .dmg files created with DropDMG's competitors, and in every case, DropDMG encoded a smaller .dmg file!

Speed. This newer version freakin' SCREAMS. I thought something went wrong until I checked the dmg file. A quick stopwatch comparison demonstrated that v277 creates a .dmg file faster than the v260 I previously had installed, and even faster than Apple's Disk Utility. Compression was as good as Disk Utility for the files I tested.

Support. Registration was a cinch and the apps never so much as hiccuped during the years I've used it.

Price. I almost didn't try DropDMG because of the price, and what a mistake that would have been. There are many free alternatives to DropDMG, but none of them are as fast, none of them compress files as efficiently (they've all got higher compressed:original file size ratios), and none have such a rich and luxurious feature set. DropDMG is well worth the $15 I paid for it.

It is a shame that Apple dropped the Disk Copy utility from OS X, which at least offered rudimentary drag and drop .dmg creation. As the greatest honor to DropDMG, I suggest that Apple should incorporate DropDMG into OS X. It's one of those apps that, once you grow accustomed to it, you cannot imagine using OS X without it.