How to make an external drive

Alright, the title is probably not a good description and I'm not sure if this is the right forum to post in, so any mods can change it.

Well, you know how when you download an application from the internet, it comes on an ejectable drive of some sort that appears under the devices list in finder? And when you open it, it has the application and an applications folder alias. Well I was wondering how to make one of those drives. Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I really have no idea how it works. Is it possible to send one in an email? And how do you make an applications folder alias that'll work for any computer's application folder?

Pretty sure you can do this in Disk Utility (though I have never tried), and there are programs like this :

DropDMG: Disk Image, Archive, and Burning Utility for Mac OS X

That will do it too.

Oh, thanks a bunch! It's called a disk image right? I couldn't google it because I didn't know what it was called. I'll try using disk utility and see how it works out. Also, for creating disc images of game cds, I know it's illegal to copy it onto other cds, but is it illegal to just make a disk image of game you own so you don't have to always put the cd in?

*As far as I know,* it's not illegal to make a disk image of a game you own just so you don't have to always put the CD in ...

UNLESS you have to defeat copy protection to do so. Then it is definitely illegal (at least in the US) and definitely against the rules of discussion here.

Oh, ok, thanks. I'll get back to my original point then.

Alright, I tried messing around with it, and it works, but I want to know 2 other things.

1, how do you make an alias that'll work for any computer's application folder?

and 2, how do you make a background for the Disk Image. I tried this tutorial, but it might be dated. http://www.macinstruct.com/new/images/columns/dmg_background/dmg_background.htm I tried using the terminal command to hide the image, but nothing happened.

It said some weird code after and that's it. I'm not familiar with using terminal. I used a disk image named "Practice" and an image named "Confused copy.jpg"

Here's what I typed:

I typed in Last login: Sun Feb 28 12:51:44 on ttys000
Sams-MacBook-Pro:~ yffum1$ cd /Volumes/Practice
Sams-MacBook-Pro: Practice yffum1$ mv Confused copy.jpg .Confused copy.jpg

Then some weird text came up and nothing happened to the disk image.

Yffum said:

1, how do you make an alias that'll work for any computer's application folder?

Click to expand...

Just make an alias and call it Applications. Every Mac running OS X has that precise folder, so the alias will always "point" to the right place.

As for your other question, try this one.

cobres blue

Alright, I figured out the answer to my original question. I found this application called DMG Canvas and it works for me. Thanks for everyone's help.

I brought the thread back up to ask a slightly different question about using disk images for games. A couple posts ago chas_m said this:

chas_m said:

*As far as I know,* it's not illegal to make a disk image of a game you own just so you don't have to always put the CD in ...

UNLESS you have to defeat copy protection to do so. Then it is definitely illegal (at least in the US) and definitely against the rules of discussion here.

Click to expand...

I don't understand what you mean by "you have to defeat copy protection to do so". How can I find out if I'm defeating copy protection of a game when I make disk image of it? Oh, and since it's "*As far as [he] knows*", can somebody confirm it's legal if you're just making a disk image of a game you own and you're not giving it to anybody, you're just using it so you don't have to put the CD in every time, and you're not defeating copy protection (whatever that is)."