The purpose of DROID is to identify file formats based on their binary signatures. It is designed to be used interactively through the graphical user interface, though it can also be run as a command line tool. The list of file format signature defintions is continously reviewed and updated by The National Archives, and can be downloaded by users of DROID.
The main DROID user interface is described below:
All files that the tool can or has identified are listed here. If the file has been through the identification process an icon is displayed in the status column describing the result status. The options are:
Whenever a file is selected in the File list pane, its identification results are displayed in this pane. This can be either a list of file formats identified or a description of the error if the file has an error status.
Displays the progress when the file identification process is taking place.