How to extract and open .daa files for free

.daa extension (Direct Access Archives) is a proprietary format by PowerISO, used commonly to archive large ISO files (ISO is a disk image format that you can burn to a disk using Nero or any other burner). DAA files format has features like compression, password protection, and splitting to multiple volumes.

DAA files can be opened by PowerISO, but unfortunately, it is free to use only for small files. Many file .daa that you get over the internet, especially those from Linux users, or file-sharing services (like BitTorrent) will be in DAA format.

This tutorial will show you how open .daa files for free on Windows. Extracting .daa extension files require two steps - converting the DAA file to an ISO file, and then burning the ISO file to a disc or extracting the ISO to get the required files.

Opening / extracting .daa files

Below are the methods to open .daa files - currently, I have only a tutorial for WIndows. Tutorial for Linux and Mac OS X will be added soon.

For Windows

To get .daa files open in Windows, you should download the following programs: DAA2ISO (no install required, just open it) and IZArc. DAA2ISO converts the .daa file to an ISO file, which you can then burn to a disc or extract (using IZArc). Alternatively, you can mount the .ISO file with MagicISO.

Once you’ve downloaded and installed them, follow these easy steps:

• Open DAA2ISO, and in the first box, point to the DAA file. In the second box, select the place where you want to extract the ISO, and also the filename for it.


• Open IZArc, and point to the ISO file and fill in the details like where you want it to be extracted to.

You would now have the original files that were converted to DAA. If you need to make a disc of the files, follow the first step from above. Then download and install ImgBurn (freeware). Open ImgBurn and burn the ISO file to a disc to get a disc with all the contents of the original DAA file.