Tips & Tricks : How to open .daa or .uif file ?

There are so many disk image, compression and archival formats available now a days. These file formats allows you

• To archive various files
• To compress it
• To rip CD or DVD disks into it and let it share across
• To transfer images over network or internet securely

These file formats comes with extension like ZIP, RAR, DAA, UIF, ISO and so forth. For each of these file formats, there are tons of tools to open, to extract and to create these archives and images. There are lots of freewares and open source utilities which can allow you to perform those functions on windows, mac, linux and unix. But still sometimes we come across some compressed file with extension like daa and/or uif and we do not know how to open .daa or .uif file?

You may think what on the earth somebody are using these formats. These formats allow you to encrypt the private file, to protect it with password , to save it in compressed mode or to transfer it over internet or network securely.

There are couple of tricks to open .daa or .uif file. Before jumping into those tricks, let me share what are these file format means.

• .DAA

stands for Direct Access Archive. It is a disk image file. It is a proprietary format. It was invented by PowerISO DVD Software company. Being proprietary format, it can not be read using any freeware or open source utility.

• .UIF

stands for Universal Image Format. UIF is created by MagicISO Maker.

To open .DAA file there are two methods.

1. Use PowerISO.

   This is free to try and $29.99 to purchase.

2. Use DAA2ISO and then mount it using Daemon Lite Tools or Magic ISO Virtual CD/DVD Manager

   DAA2ISO is a open source utility. It allows you to convert DAA file to ISO format.

   You can download DAA2ISO from either from it's author's site Luigi Auriemma or from Softpedia.com DAA2ISO download.

   Once you download, you can unzip it in a folder.

   Then click on DAA2ISO, it will open a windows command window as well as it will ask for the location of DAA file opening windows file dialogue box.

   You give the directory and file and it will happily convert the DAA file to ISO.

   

   Then you can use a virtual CD/DVD manager like Daemon Lite Tools or Magic ISO. Mount ISO drive and browse the contents of the mounted image.

To open .UIF file there are two methods

1. Use freeware MagicISO

2. Use UIF2ISO and then mount it using Daemon Lite Tools or Magic ISO Virtual CD/DVD Manager

   UIF2ISO is a open source utility. It allows you to convert DAA file to ISO format.

   You can download UIF2ISO from either from it's author's site Luigi Auriemma or from Softpedia.com UIF2ISO download.

   Rest is easy. Extract it in folder

   Then click on UIF2ISO, it will open a windows command window as well as it will ask for the location of UIF file opening windows file dialogue box.

   You give the directory and file and it will happily convert the UIF file to ISO.

   Then you can use a virtual CD/DVD manager like Daemon Lite Tools or Magic ISO. Mount ISO drive and browse the contents of the mounted image.

These are the methods to open these ubiqutous file format on Windows. Do you know any other method to open these files formats? Please do share.

Enjoy...