Disk Image Formats

File Formats > Electronic File Formats > Disk Image Formats

File systems and other file formats described on this page's parent page describe entities that exist on disks as they would normally used.

However, there are also file formats that allow a physical disk to be "imaged" into a file, either to re-copied onto a physical disk later, or else used by an *emulator* of the computer system that would have originally.

These file formats represent a data image of one of the physical floppy disk formats. In addition to the raw data from the disk, these formats may contain metadata that the corresponding emulator environment uses to correctly access the data.

Typically, when archiving a physical disk for later use, a physical disk will be imaged into one of these file formats. Sub-pages of this page should contain information on the format itself as well as instructions on how to extract a physical disk into that disk image format, including information about what physical drives are required, what software to use and how and what OS that is run under.

See also ROM and memory images for images of memory, and Floppy disks for the physical floppies.

Floppy Disk Image Formats

Images created directly from floppy disks.

Generic Sector Images

• raw IMG (ie, created with dd)
• TD0 (TeleDisk)
• FDI (Formatted Disk Image)

• FDS Famicom Disk System

• ADF (Amiga) Amiga ADF image
• DMS Amiga DiskMasher compressed image

• ADF (Acorn) Acorn Archimedes Disk Image

• Disk Copy 4.2 (Apple)
• DART (Apple)
• Disk Copy 6 (Apple)

• D64 and its variants (D71, D81, all with optional error information) from the C64
• G64 C64 raw (GCR coded) disk image
• NIB C64 "nibbler" format (created by mnib)

• DSK (CPCEMU disc image), used for Amstrad and related discs (typically 3" discs)

Physical (Hardware) Images

• IPF (Software Preservation Society image format)
• DRAFT (Also from Software Preservation Society, intermediate format)

Optical Disc Image Formats

CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, BluRay, GD-ROM etc.

• CloneCD Control File (.ccd, .img, .sub)
• CUE and BIN
• ISZ
• MDF and MDS
• NRG (Nero Burning ROM)
• CDI (Disc Juggler)
• BWI (BlindWrite Image File)

• DMG (Apple)

Forensics formats

• Expert Witness (i.e. EnCase)
• Advanced Forensics Format (AFF)

Tools

• The Sleuth Kit and Autopsy can read raw, Expert Witness, and AFF formats