The DAA File – Everything You Need To Know

What Is a DAA File

DAA files are yet another disk image file format, invented and used by PowerISO DVD software. This means that a .daa file contains an exact copy of a CD or a DVD – whether it be a movie, a game or simply a few gigabytes of accounting data (damn my perverted imagination). Disk images are used for a variety of purposes :

  • Backup DVD movies and CD disks and copy DVD.
  • Store DVD rips (politically correctly – “backups”).
  • Use in virtual CD/DVD emulators.
  • Burn DVD copy at a later date.
  • Upload and download DVD disks on the Internet.

If you’re reading this, chances are you got (that is, downloaded) a .daa file somewhere (that is, BitTorrent or the like) and are wondering what to do with it. Read on.

Sometimes, when somebody wants to put a “backup” copy of a DVD film or some other stuff online, the .daa file format is used instead of the more popular disk image formats (like ISO, BIN, CUE) because it supports certain advanced features –

  • Compression – a CD/DVD copy stored in .daa file format may be slightly smaller than a corresponding .iso file.
  • Multiple volume splitting – this means that you get multiple smaller DAA files instead of one huge disk image.
  • Encryption/passwords – I don’t think this one is terribly useful, but you can password-protect your disk images if you use the DAA file type.

On a side note, it’s possible to get all the aforementioned benefits of DAA files by simply archiving the ISO disk copy with WinRAR. This is why you may often see .rar files in BitTorrent downloads (additional information – how to deal with RAR files).

How To Open DAA Files

There’s actually only one alternative when it comes to opening DAA files.
There are two ways to deal with DAA files – you can either convert them to another file format (e.g. the widely supported ISO) and use the converted file, or use PowerISO (shareware) to open them. I’ll discuss both possibilities.

Converting DAA to ISO
Suzanne DeAngelillis has posted a wonderful tutorial on how to convert DAA files to ISO and/or burn them to CD/DVD using only freeware Windows applications. You can find the tutorial further below on this page.

I’ve also created a graphical interface for the daa2iso converter – my DAA converter GUI. It’s a simpler, easier alternative you can use if you’re not familiar with command-line tools or find the tutorial confusing.

If you’re using Linux, check out AcetoneISO – it can extract DAA files or convert them to ISO files. AcetoneISO is free, open source CD/DVD software that integrates with KDE.

Using PowerISO
To open a file with the .daa file extension on Windows you can also use PowerISO. After you’ve installed this program you can just double-click any .daa file (which will launch PowerISO and open the file) and extract any files contained in the disk image.

PowerISO can also “mount” DAA files with an internal virtual drive it creates. This means you don’t need to burn the DAA file to a disk before you can use it. You can just mount it and play the .daa file as if it was a real CD/DVD.

The .daa file format is proprietary and is not supported by any CD / DVD burning software I know of, except PowerISO. However, if you mount the DAA file with the virtual drive, you can probably copy/rip/do whatever you like with the virtual “disk” using whichever software you prefer.

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