Restoring to a folder

[ericob]

There are several issues embedded in my comment.

First, to reply: It is not that I want to "store" the contents of a disk image in folder. I want to REstore a disk image TO a folder. Currently, we can backup volumes to images and folders to images. And we can restore images to volumes. But we cannot restore an image to a folder. Realize than an image will not always contain a bootable volume: it may contain only a folder (a collection of files), just a single very large file, a data-only volume, etc.

I realize I can open an image and use the Finder to copy everything (or pick and choose) to another location. That will often be useful, but also is not what I'm looking for.

I really do not want to have to rely on the Finder to copy these files. And I'd prefer to not even let the Finder see the files before they appear in my target folder. (I don't want Spotlight or some other "service" grabbing for things on a mounted image.) Also, there may be invisible files on the image. A mounted image will not show those files in the Finder, and therefore they cannot be selected for copying. For another thing, I want all the file information preserved during the process. I do not want permission settings or modification dates of the files changing, for instance. It's also difficult to believe that the Finder is going to be very efficient copying thousands and thousands of files. And how good it its validation checking?

As I say, I'd prefer a solution that will restore the contents of a disk image file to a folder (without needing to mount that image). As a second choice I'll settle for mounting the image and using a command or tool in the terminal to do the copy task. Which one(s) will preserve all the "Macintosh stuff" in files?

In your reply you wrote "...but since you probably can't authorize to copy that much data...." I've never heard of this sort of limit. Are you saying that the Finder will refuse to copy more than a certain number of files at a time??


In case anyone wonders why I would want to keep a collection of file in a disk image (instead of simply in a copy of the folder), it is because in an image the files are "hermetically sealed." I can safely have a disk image visible to my file system without exposing its contents to the file system. I won't mistakenly begin working inside my "backup" folder, iTunes or iPhoto or Spotlight or WHATever will not notice the contained files and feel bound to do something with them, etc. Also, again, the image should be an exact copy of my files, not the simply the Finder's idea of what the current user can see or do.