DMS (DiskMasher) file extension is used by Amiga disk image files generated with The Disk Masher software tool. DMS file stores compressed disk image (usually floppy) for Amiga computers. DiskMasher is a copyright-protected format.

Technical information

While creating a DMS file the source disk is read block-by-block to maintain the data structure. The format natively supports compression and offers some copy protection solutions.

Problems with storing bit sequences

Unfortunately, DMS format has problems with storing some bit sequences due to errors in compression algorithm it uses. To address this issues different archiving methods were developed that employed alternative reading and compression solutions, such as xDM and XAD.

The past and present state

DMS format was originally used by Amiga computers for disk data archiving. DMS was very popular in the software pirate and demo scenes. Today, DMS files are used mostly by Amiga emulators (e.g. FidoNet) rather than Amiga computers.