I have a .dd file stored inside a zip folder, how do I view its contents? I have tried many options, among which is the systools disk image viewer. Most of the tools I've tried once downloaded ask for a payment, but this one doesn't. Hence I thought it would work and did the following: I extracted the .dd from in the zip and then attempted to scan the extracted .dd but it says: "select proper file type". I am operating off windows. Could you please explain to me how to view the contents of the .dd?
1 Answer
When someone tells me about a dd-file I associate this with "Disk Dump". I would expect that to be an image file of a disk - like Kamil Maciorowski described it in the comment section.
There are various possibilities to make the content visible.
Option 1 - use a software to mount image files
There is free software around that mounts image files in Windows so that the image file appears to the operating system as a disk. If that file contains valid structures, a Windows operating system should be able to read its contents then. Search for "mount image file".
Option 2 - use a software that reads out image files
This is your current choice that failed! Some disk editors and forensic editors are able to handle a disk image like the source it was pulled from. Such a tool would tell you for instance, that there are a number of partitions in there und would be able to read directories in there and extract files.
If your "systools disk image viewer refuses to work stating "select proper file type" then your image is lacking the structure the image viewer is expecting.
The reason is that the content could be something different or that the image is not a full disk image but only a partition image. A partition image would directly start with a boot sector. Such a structure is called "supper floppy" and the editor has to be able to identify this structure.
Option 3 - Put the image file back onto a drive
Another way would be to write this dd file to USB stick or hdd or ssd (not sure if Rufus supports hdds and ssds as well) using a tool such as Rufus in the windows world. Then you really have a disk drive (the USB stick) and your operating system should be able to read it.
Use a hex editor to look at unknown files. Text editors most likely fail or take very long when dealing with long files as they try to read the whole file in memory.
dd-wrttag knowingly because there's a connection with DD-WRT? What connection then? (3) In some sense you can view contents of any file with a binary editor or a text editor. Is this what you want? (4) If not, you needfilefirst. See this question.file) I can only give you this: sometimes people use the.ddextension for images of block devices. It's somewhat connected to theddUnix tool one can use to create an image or write it back. But one can useddfor other things, so this extension makes almost as little sense as using.cpfor any file because you can copy the file. Still it may be the file in question contains a filesystem or a structure with MBR, partition table and filesystem(s). I would know what to try in Linux.