Extract text from Ensoniq disk images (GKH)
To convert GKH disk images to another format, you need Ensoniq Disk Tools or other Disk Image software.
To convert other file formats to the "Sampler Disk Image" file type, you need software like Ensoniq Disk Tools or a similar tool.
A .gkh file is an exact, sector-by-sector disk image of a floppy disk formatted for vintage Ensoniq EPS, EPS-16+, and ASR-10 hardware samplers. Originally developed by Goh Kwang Heng, the format features a raw binary dump of the disk accompanied by a short 58-byte or 512-byte header. This header sometimes includes a 'skip table' to compress empty sectors. Because these files use Ensoniq's proprietary 1990s file system, modern operating systems like Windows and macOS cannot mount or read them natively.
Musicians and archivists typically need to convert or extract .gkh files to rescue legacy sound banks, sequences, and audio samples. Because the file system is proprietary, standard extraction tools like 7-Zip or WinRAR will fail completely. Instead, you must use specialized software like Chicken Systems Ensoniq Disk Tools or Awave Studio to browse the internal directory.
For modern workflows, the best approach is to extract the raw audio into standard WAV files for use in any DAW, or export the sequencer data as MID (Standard MIDI Files). If you intend to use the files on the original Ensoniq hardware via an SD card or USB floppy emulator (like Gotek or HxC), you can convert the .gkh image into an .HFE or IMG format.
Extracting data from Ensoniq files is highly specialized because the native file system is completely foreign to modern computers. While our tool can confirm if the structure matches a valid Ensoniq image, full extraction of the proprietary audio blocks typically requires dedicated retro-sampler utilities.
Convert.Guru analyzes your GKH file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted EDQ, EFK and EFV files.
If you want to convert GKH file to ISO, IMG, DMG, VHD, VMDK, VDI, HDD, QCOW, QCOW2, RAW, VBOX or OVA, you can use Ensoniq Disk Tools or similar software from the "Synthesizer Floppy Disk Image" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert VFD, DMG, OVA, IMA, VBOX, ADF, PVS, VHD, OVF, ISO, DSK or IMG files to GKH, try Ensoniq Disk Tools or another comparable tool in the "Synthesizer Floppy Disk Image" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our GKH converter.