AARU File

What are AARU files and how to open them

Are you having problems opening an AARU file or are you simply curious about its contents? We're here to explain the properties of these files and provide you with software that can open or handle your AARU files.

What is an AARU file?

An .AARU file is an Aaru Disk Image file.

Aaru Disk Image (.AARU, also .AARUF / .AARUFORMAT / .AIF) is an archival disk-image format used by the Aaru Data Preservation Suite to store exact, sector-by-sector dumps of storage media (optical discs, magnetic disks, flash, memory cards, tapes, etc.) including full metadata, error sectors, pregaps, subchannels and other low-level data. It is designed for preservation, forensic analysis and long-term archival of media, not for everyday mounting or editing of files.

Files in this format are produced by Aaru when using its media dump command, when the user specifies one of the Aaru Format extensions (.aaruf, .aaruformat, .aif). The image preserves all physical and logical structure of the media, allows incremental resumption (so interrupted dumps don't corrupt previously captured data), supports metadata sidecars, and can be compared, verified, and examined with the Aaru toolset.

In technical terms, Aaru Disk Image files begin with the ASCII header "AARUFRMT" at offset 0 as their signature. This signature identifies the file as in the Aaru Format.

These files are identified by the signature "AARUFRMT" in ASCII (bytes 0x41 41 52 55 46 52 4D 54) at file start (offset 0).

How to open AARU files

Important: Different programs may use files with the AARU file extension for different purposes, so unless you are sure which format your AARU file is, you may need to try a few different programs.

We have not yet verified any programs for Windows that work with this specific file format. If you know one, please use the 'Suggest a program' link below. Thanks!

Last updated: August 16, 2026

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