What Is an HDMP File?
A file with the HDMP file extension is a Windows Heap Dump file used for storing uncompressed error files generated, or “dumped,” when a program crashes in some versions of Windows. Compressed dump files are stored in the MDMP (Windows Minidump) format and are used by Windows to send the crash reports to Microsoft.
How to Open an HDMP File
Error dump files can be opened using Microsoft Visual Studio through its File > Open menu. Recent versions of the program can open HDMP, MDMP, and DMP (Windows Memory Dump) files this way. If you’re using a version of Visual Studio that doesn’t seem to let you open the file, just rename it to use the DMP file extension and try again. If you get an error about “not enough storage,” it’s likely that the dump file is too large for Visual Studio to load into memory.
How to Convert an HDMP File
We’re not aware of any way to convert an HDMP or MDMP file to any other format.
More Information on Dump Files
The Windows Registry location that holds error reporting information is in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive, within the Windows Error Reporting key: The folder that programs typically hold dump files in may be called dumps or reports, and is typically found in the program’s installation directory. However, others might keep these files in a totally different folder, like DellDataVault for Dell programs, for example, or CrashDumps. If you need help finding an .HDMP, .MDMP, or .DMP file on your computer, one easy way to search for it is with the free tool Everything.
Still Can’t Open It?
Windows dump files might use the HDMP, MDMP, or DMP file extension, and some file formats use a file extension that closely resembles those, making it really easy to confuse one format for another. For example, HDML is spelled almost the exact same way but is used for Handheld Device Markup Language files. If your file isn’t opening as described above, check that it really does end with “.HDMP,” because HDML files open with a different program. It’s just as easy to confuse MDMP and MDM files. The latter might be in the HLM Multivariate Data Matrix file format or the Mario Dash Map file format, but again, neither are related to HDMP files. DMPR files are easy to mix up with DMP mail projects used by Direct Mail. Yet another example is the DM file extension. HDMI is a common search term that has a similar spelling as HDMP, but it has nothing to do with this format or any file format. HDMI stands for High-Definition Multimedia Interface. If you don’t have a dump file, be sure to research the real file extension for your file to learn which programs can open or convert it.
