Know How to Recover Data from Corrupted DMG File For Detailed Analysis!

Approved By Anuraag Singh

Published On October 4th, 2023

Reading Time 3 Minutes Reading

DMG file is a Disk Image format, which was introduced by the Apple. This file is the proprietary disk image file used on Mac Operating System machines, which store disk images followed, by optional encryption and compression. Many users tend to use this file to save important data and hence its analysis and forensics can bring out many hidden evidences. This file is important from Apple machine’s digital scrutiny point of view and it holds chances of reaching to the helpful evidence. These images can also be mounted as volumes in order to access the data from the current OS directly.

Challenges to Open Corrupt DMG File

Compressed or encrypted DMG files are usually not supported by the file examination applications, as they are read-only files.
Unallocated space is not available in the compressed DMG file and hence the analysis can be difficult for such files.
Moreover, encrypted files are not supported by most of the 3^rd party tools and hence it can be cumbersome for investigators to deal with the encrypted files.
Most of the investigators’ workstations comprise of better and more convenient Operating Systems and hence they use Windows. However, DMG file is not supported on Windows and hence investigators can find it difficult for investigating these files.
Deleted data can hold important evidence and hence it is important to recover data from corrupted DMG file for further analysis.

In order to resolve all challenges, it is important to take help from a third party software program like DMG Viewer to open corrupt DMG file. This utility is a Windows based utility, which support Apple DMG file format and help to open and view the DMG file on Windows machine.

Recover Data from Corrupted DMG File via Freeware Utility

The utility is designed to show the DMG file data, which offers viewing the encrypted DMG file and recovery of EML, EMLX, and MBOX from the Apple DMG file. This tool has no option embedded for exporting the data and supports limited file formats to show the data from DMG file. Below mentioned steps can be followed for open corrupt DMG file;

Step 1: Download, install and configure the application and launch it. A pop-up window like below will open with Scan option in menu. Click on Scan option.

Step 2: Use the Filter option for selecting any specific file amongst: EML, EMLX, and MBOX. Alternatively, select All for selecting all file formats.

Step 3: Click on Browse to navigate to the DMG file location. Once the location is provided, click OK. This will start scanning and a message will be displayed when scanning is done.

Step 4: Complete hierarchy of the DMG file along with associated data will be displayed as soon as the scanning is completed.

Step 5: To open corrupt DMG file, Users can click on preview to view particular file from the list in the display.

Step 6: Particular email or file can be viewed in different views by clicking on different tabs like; Normal, Hex, Properties, Message header, HTML, RTF or Attachments.

Step 7: An Advance Search option is provided to view data belonging to particular date range.

Deleted items are flagged in red color and it can be viewed for further analysis. In this way, investigators can perform the investigation on the Apple DMG file using DMG viewer. This is a freeware application and supports all the Windows versions. Software supports recovery and viewing of permanently deleted files from DMG image disk file. It also supports compressed or encrypted DMG files aiding forensics investigation on it.