How to unpack dd file on Windows?

Question

Is it possible to unpack files created with linux dd tool on Windows? I have tried that tool http://www.chrysocome.net/dd, but it crashes under Windows 7. Any ideas?

Solution

dd doesn't "pack" anything. It just literally copies. For example:

dd if=/path/sometextfile.txt of=whatever.file

"whatever.file" will be identical to "sometextfile.txt".

However, dd can be used to copy directly from the block layer of a device:

dd if=/dev/sda1 of=disk.img

In which case you again have a literal copy. Presuming they are done correctly from a device containing an actual filesystem, windows may be able to do something with these if you give them an .iso suffix, but it probably won't work if the underlying filesystem was ext.

Another good reason not to use dd as a method of backing up filesystems.

Comments

[phunehehe]

dd is a rather low-level tool and there are many ways it could be used. How exactly did you create those files?

[eyoung100]

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