[Jwylie]

Hello, i just recently bought a 12" pb 1.33 ghz and this is my first mac and i am a little confused. When i download a .dmg file to install a program, and i get the drive icon on my desktop, what i had been doing is opening that up and then dragging the program icon into the applications folder so i could open it whenever i wanted, after i did that i would eject the drive. Now i was wondering where does it go? I looked all through the library and searched the hard drive but i couldn't find the original folder where the program was located, could anyone help me out? Thank You.

[wataru]

The drive is not real. It appears as a result of you opening a disk image file (dmg). As long as you still have the original .dmg file, you can remount the "disk" as many times as you like.

If you've ejected the "disk" and thrown away the dmg, it's gone forever (or until you re-download it).

[gorickey]

A disk image is a file that contains the contents of a disk or part of a disk, such as a separate volume or folder. Disk image icons appear on your Desktop or in a Finder window as a document with a hard disk on it. The disk image's name is followed by the filename extension ".dmg" (for example, Installer.dmg).

You can transfer a disk image file to another disk or burn it on a CD or DVD as a way of moving files from one location to another.

When you double-click a disk image icon, the disk image file is "attached" to the operating system and any valid volumes stored on the disk image are "mounted," or opened. The volume icon appears on your desktop or in the Finder window next to hard disks and CD-ROM discs. Double-click the volume icon to see its contents.

You can drag files from the mounted volume and copy them to your hard disk, run an installer on the volume, or perform a variety of tasks with its contents.

To create your own disk images or modify an existing disk image, use Disk Utility, located in Applications/Utilities. You can create disk images in Mac OS, MS-DOS (Windows), or Unix formats.

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NOTE: This was found using OS X's built in "Mac Help" found here:

Finder > Help > Mac Help

A simple search, for "What is a .dmg?" landed me the above explanation.

[monkeybrain]

I'll add that the program doesn't need the disk image, it's just a container for easier downloading, so don't worry about deleting them after installation (unless you've accidentally deleted the program, then you obviously need the disk image to install it again, but that goes without saying, well I just did say it, but eh whatever).

[Jwylie]

the reason i was asking was because i got a little excited when i finally got my internet connection going, and i downloaded some programs that I really don't want anymore, so I deleted the main icon but could not find the rest of the program in it's folder. Thanks again.