Swimming in treacle

[mrog]

Hello All,

My problem is that I have some .bin files (containing numerical data) but I have lost the text versions of these files.

I am wondering if anyone can offer any suggestions as to how I can convert these files into something I can read, or alternately, if there is a way of deciphering the .bin files. I have a program called "binedit" that allows me to view the file in hexadecimal code and ANSI or OEM characters but trying to make sense of it is like swimming in treacle.

I'd really appreciate any help!

Mrog

 

[ainwood]

It is possible if you can provide details of what the file format was in the first place....

 

[Lucky]

You can expect the best help if you post at least one of those Binary files here, for us to take a look at. There are tons of possibilities, but it all depends on what exactly those BINs are composed of.
So give us a file to figure it out, unless it has any national secrets in it.

 

[mrog]

Hi guys,

Thanks so much for your replies- and sorry I didn't think to attach a file!

I have attached one here (it wont let me attach it with a .bin extention so I have changed it to BIN.TXT). I have also managed to find a copy of the text version of this file and I have attached that to the post below.

 

[mrog]

The text file (ascii.TXT)is attached here- it is the text version of the above file. unfortuneatly I have about a hundred other .bin files without a corresponding text version- so I'd really appreciate it if someone could help me out.

Many thanks.

 

[gonzo_for_civ]

I tried a few .bin editors. None of those worked. I even pulled out a trusty hex editor and tried about 50 different combinations of conversions(ANSI - OEM, Unicode to UTF-8, ASCII - EBCDIC, vise versa, etc.)

The end result..lots of tried..no luck yet.

Hopefully someone here has a utility that will automatically recognize and make the necessary conversions!

 

[Sanaz]

What were you doing with the bin files? How did you create them? Perhaps a little history of the file/data will help.

 

[ainwood]

mrog,

Echoing Sanaz - we may be able to help if you can provide more info.

How is the text file generated from the binary file? What is the significance of the number in the text file? Is this text file actually generated from this binary file?

 

[mrog]

Hi Guys,

Many, many thanks to you all for your efforts. Unfortunately I don't know much about the ins and outs of it all so I'm afraid I can't really provide the sort of info you probably need.

Luckily for me, I recently discovered that the original programmer (who had been believed to have "disappeared") is now contactable again- so hopefully he can help sort this out.

Thanks again and sorry for any frustration.

 

[gonzo_for_civ]

That's ok. At least we had fun foolin' around with it for a while

now you just need to slap that programmer!!! *slap*