Sparse Image or Sparse Bundle Image

When creating a disk image in Disk Utility there is the option of creating a "sparse image" and a "sparse bundle image". Anyone know what the difference is?

I know what sparse means (that the image is only as big as the files inside), but what does the "bundle" part mean?

Thanks

Mac OS X (10.5)

Posted on Nov 2, 2007 10:14 PM

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Posted on Feb 2, 2008 4:43 AM

http://macosx.com/article/live-filevaultsparse-bundle-backups-in-leopard.html

Basically, Sparse Bundle Images (used by FileVault in 10.5) are Sparse Disk Images which are broken up into 8MB "bands," presumably so that Time Machine only has to backup certain portions of the image instead of the entire thing.
5 replies

Feb 1, 2008 9:43 AM in response to Jake Olefsky

Does anyone have an answer to this? I deal with a lot of sensitive information during my software consulting, and I've always used 128 bit encrypted sparse images to perform my work on. Now I notice that I have 256 bit and sparse bundle disk images. Are the sparse bundles as secure as disk images, and will I still need to manually run the compact command from hdiutil to "shrink" the drive when I delete files off of it?

Thanks,
Todd

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Sparse Image or Sparse Bundle Image

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