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.DAA archive handling application?

matticus008

matticus008

macrumors 68040
Original poster
We've recently started circulating Direct Access Archive files for large projects--apparently there's a Windows app which makes them the PC equivalent to DMGs. Anyway, my Macs have been left out in the cold with no application that can open them. Can anyone recommend a good program for opening, or at least converting, .daa files?
 
If I'm not mistaken, .daa is a proprietary format and there's only one application (even on Windows) that can open it. What reason is there to use .daa instead of .iso, which is cross-platform?
 
mduser63 said:
If I'm not mistaken, .daa is a proprietary format and there's only one application (even on Windows) that can open it. What reason is there to use .daa instead of .iso, which is cross-platform?
Click to expand...
What I've been able to find confirms your suspicion. Primarily, there were two motivating factors for the group that switched to this format: data security (DAA files can be encrypted/password-protected like a Mac disk image) and price (the other ISO creation/virtual mounting software vendors wouldn't match the price of PowerISO).

It looks like the Windows-centric workplace strikes again! I could suggest switching to a secure archive format, but the virtual drive system actually works really well for this type of data (lots and lots of compiled research, without getting too deeply into specifics), whereas data archives would have to be extracted, etc. I'll just use a Windows PC for these particular files, I suppose. Thanks!
 
matticus008 said:
What I've been able to find confirms your suspicion. Primarily, there were two motivating factors for the group that switched to this format: data security (DAA files can be encrypted/password-protected like a Mac disk image) and price (the other ISO creation/virtual mounting software vendors wouldn't match the price of PowerISO).

It looks like the Windows-centric workplace strikes again! I could suggest switching to a secure archive format, but the virtual drive system actually works really well for this type of data (lots and lots of compiled research, without getting too deeply into specifics), whereas data archives would have to be extracted, etc. I'll just use a Windows PC for these particular files, I suppose. Thanks!
Click to expand...

I suppose this would be a perfect job for Virtual PC. You could use it to open and mount the daa files, and then just copy the contents to your Mac for use. VPC is slow, but for this sort of thing, it's just fine.
 
Solution with my iMac

1st you need to install and setup Crossover with a win2000 bottle.
Now open up the download of Poweriso. Yep the free windows demo.
Crossover will associate itself with this file. Note the Crossover icon with download prompts.
Install poweriso. Use spotlight to hurry and find the poweriso lnk.
There will be 4 Poweriso folders that get installed.
Click the shortcut link.
Open the daa file.
Copy to a mac designated mac folder. Your HD is one of the virtual drives in Crossover.
Hope this helps. 🙂
 
DennyKrane said:
1st you need to install and setup Crossover with a win2000 bottle.
Now open up the download of Poweriso. Yep the free windows demo.
Click to expand...
Thanks, but like Nermal pointed out, this is no good with a PowerBook. I just do all work with these files on a PC. It's the only practical solution without spending, or asking the company to pay for, hundreds of dollars in software to get a Mac to act like a PC.

For all it's worth, the price of Crossover plus a Windows license buys you a suitable PC these days. I don't plan on buying an Intel Mac any time soon.
 
DennyKrane said:
1st you need to install and setup Crossover with a win2000 bottle.
Now open up the download of Poweriso. Yep the free windows demo.
Crossover will associate itself with this file. Note the Crossover icon with download prompts.
Install poweriso. Use spotlight to hurry and find the poweriso lnk.
There will be 4 Poweriso folders that get installed.
Click the shortcut link.
Open the daa file.
Copy to a mac designated mac folder. Your HD is one of the virtual drives in Crossover.
Hope this helps. 🙂
Click to expand...

In my MacPro, PowerISO window will not open under a Win98, Win2000, or WinXP bottle. The icon appears in the dock but the window never opens.
Any idea how to make this work?

Thanks! 😱
 
I have the same issue, where the PowerISO icon just sits in the Dock. It installed OK into Crossover, starts to run, but than I just get the icon on the dock. No window for PowerISO. Any suggestions?

Tried using all bottle options, tried an earlier version of PowerISO. No luck.
 
Looking for testers for OS X-native DAA conversion utility

Hi,

I’m developing a free utility to convert DAAs on OS X (based on the command-line tool, daa2iso), but I don’t have many DAA files, so I’m looking for testers who either have access to the Windows PowerISO tool to create their own, or would be willing to hunt down a few DAAs to give the app a reasonable variety of testing material.

If you’re interested, please send an email to daaconverter (at) twilightedge (dot) com.

Thanks!
 
sorry to post twice, but I saw the creator was in this thread,,,, so I thought "what the heck".

hey, to those who had success, does anyone know why i'd be getting the error

"Error: the compressed ZLIB input is wrong or incomplete"

thanks,
 
Draddy said:
sorry to post twice, but I saw the creator was in this thread,,,, so I thought "what the heck".

hey, to those who had success, does anyone know why i'd be getting the error

"Error: the compressed ZLIB input is wrong or incomplete"

thanks,
Click to expand...

Please make sure you have version 1.1 of DAA Converter. (Run it and select "DAA Converter" > "About DAA Converter" from your menu bar). If not, you can download it from the same link as above, and retry your DAA file.

If it still doesn't work on v1.1, your DAA file is probably corrupt - either it didn't copy onto your computer correctly, or it's corrupted at the source. Try getting a fresh copy from wherever you copied/downloaded it, and if DAA Converter still won't convert it, please send an email to: daaconverter (at) twilightedge (dot) com .

Thanks!
 
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