What is a .ISO file?
An ISO is an exact image of an optical disc, used to burn or mount CDs and DVDs.
- Did you know
- ISO files are named after the ISO 9660 CD filesystem standard from 1988.
- Extensions layered onto ISO 9660 add features the base lacked: Joliet for Unicode names, Rock Ridge for Unix permissions and El Torito for bootable discs.
- Newer discs often use the Universal Disk Format instead, which the ISO image can also carry for DVDs and Blu-rays.
- What Analyser reads
- Identify disk and virtual-machine images: ISO, VHD/VHDX (Hyper-V), VMDK (VMware), QCOW2 (QEMU), and VDI (VirtualBox). For raw IMG images it decodes the partition table (MBR/GPT) and the first volume's filesystem - FAT16/32, NTFS, exFAT - with label, cluster size, and volume size.
- Depth of analysis
- .ISO is an identification-grade format: Analyser recognises it from its bytes and decodes the header metadata it carries, rather than opening it in a full viewer. Formats that do get a full viewer are marked "Full" on the formats page.
- Open a .ISO file
- Drag a .ISO file onto the Analyser home page (or tap to pick one). It is identified entirely in your browser - nothing is uploaded, there is no account, and it works offline once installed.