What is a .MDF file?
MDF holds the data of a disc image, paired with an MDS descriptor.
- Did you know
- MDF/MDS image pairs come from the Alcohol 120% disc-copying software.
- An MDF holds the raw sector data of a copied disc, which is why it captures more than a plain ISO can.
- MDF images are produced by Alcohol Soft’s Alcohol 120%, which can mirror discs carrying schemes like SecuROM and SafeDisc.
- What Analyser reads
- Inspect virtual-machine descriptors (VMware .vmx, VirtualBox .vbox, OVF/OVA), disc images (Nero .nrg, Alcohol .mds/.mdf, CloneCD), embedded firmware (Intel HEX, Motorola S-record, UF2, ELF/AXF, Device Tree Blobs, U-Boot uImage), partition tables (MBR/GPT with GUIDs), Linux filesystem superblocks (ext2/3/4, SquashFS, cramfs, romfs) and Windows imaging (WIM/ESD) - reading headers directly, no upload.
- Depth of analysis
- .MDF 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 .MDF file
- Drag a .MDF 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.