How do I find out the file type without an extension?

Question

After recovering my HDD, I ended up with a lot of files with no extension. Many of them are .bin files.

Is there any way to find out what file format they actually are?

Many of them have no information if I edit them with Notepad++ or Hex Editors.

score 65 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 13 '19 at 17:38

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Ahh, the dark arts of file identification.

I rather like trid for this. It identifies files (and renames them, if you choose), has a nice large database, and is totally independent of the file itself, so you have two approaches at your disposal.

edited Sep 13 '19 at 17:38

enharmonic

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answered Jun 11 '12 at 11:50

Journeyman Geek

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learned something better while trying to help. wonderful and thank you! – johnshen64 Jun 11 '12 at 14:37
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Its a *really* neat bit of software. I've just been waiting for a chance to use it properly ;p – Journeyman Geek Jun 11 '12 at 14:46
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For amateur users like me ( cause took me some time to figure out ) , there is a window version ( I mean visual one ) [TrIDNet](http://mark0.net/soft-tridnet-e.html) which require [TrIDLib](http://mark0.net/code-tridlib-e.html) also , again Thanks man all of my files are healthy , also after searching i figured out how to use batch mode and replace all extensions to right ones , Thank you – echolab Jun 11 '12 at 21:08
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A bit late but, actually, TrIDNet (a .NET application) don't require TrIDLib (a Win32 DLL). – Mark0 Jan 09 '13 at 14:04
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Awesome tool. I just used it to figure out that an email attachment I was sent to decipher was a `.gz` file, not a `.tar` file as its extension showed. Once I unzipped the `.gz` file I actually got a `.tar` file, so it was really originally a `.tar.gz` file. I then extracted the `.tar` file to find a SQL script with a `.sql` extension and a JSON file with no extension. Except that the SQL script wasn't actually a SQL script, but another `.gz` file containing the actual `.sql` file. Ha ha. – Adam Goodwin May 20 '16 at 07:16

Astyanax · Answer 2 · 2012-06-11T15:14:09.637

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There is also FileID which uses magicdb

http://www.optimasc.com/products/fileid/index.html

Explanation: FileID, TrID and File all work with magic numbers contained in the file which are supposed to be unique for each filetype, so all three programs are more or less equivalent. TrID is the most practical for windows users, while GNU/Linux ones simply use file.

edited Jun 11 '12 at 15:14

answered Jun 11 '12 at 15:01

Astyanax

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score 9 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 11 '12 at 22:03

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You can try the file command for Windows

http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/file.htm

edited Jun 11 '12 at 22:03

hippietrail

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answered Jun 11 '12 at 11:40

johnshen64

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it shows this , what that mean data , what kind of data `C:\Program Files (x86)\GnuWin32\bin>file file01929.bin file01929.bin; data` , is there any more advance tool ? – echolab Jun 11 '12 at 11:49
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"Data" means it makes no sense to the `file` command. – David Schwartz Jun 11 '12 at 12:02
Try https://mark0.net/onlinetrid.html – Renan Coelho Jul 06 '22 at 03:40

score 6 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 17 '12 at 23:11

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Another tool that may come useful is ExifTool. Contrary to what the name may suggest, it can identify and extract medatada from more than your usual photos / images filetypes.

answered Jun 17 '12 at 23:11

Mark0

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How do I find out the file type without an extension?

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