What is a .CHD file?
CHD is a compressed disc/drive image used by MAME and Dreamcast emulators.
- Did you know
- CHD stores arcade and console disc images compactly for emulation.
- CHD was written by Aaron Giles for MAME and originally stood for “Compressed Hard Drive” before being redubbed “Compressed Hunks of Data”.
- It compresses the disc in independent chunks called hunks and stores SHA-1 hashes so the image’s integrity can be verified.
- What Analyser reads
- Identify and read more game and emulator files: Unity asset bundles, Unreal cooked assets, CISO/CHD disc images, FMOD/Wwise sound banks, Spine skeletons and atlases, GameMaker/LDtk/TIC-80 projects, Minecraft Anvil regions, Warcraft III maps, Ren Py and RPG Maker data, extra console ROMs (Atari, PC Engine, Master System/Game Gear, WonderSwan, 3DS homebrew), xdelta/Basis patches and emulator saves and movies. Scene and scenario files share the .scn extension across unrelated engines, so it is resolved on its bytes: a Godot binary scene (RSRC header) is named as one, and the strategy-game scenarios (OpenTTD, Age of Empires, SimCity 2000) and plain-text scenes (Orbiter, Behringer X32) are told apart from it. Custom Player Models .cpmmodel avatars - the standalone model the Minecraft mod exports, and what the Blockbench plugin reads and writes - are identified too.
- Depth of analysis
- .CHD 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 .CHD file
- Drag a .CHD 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.