How can I decode a binary file when I don't know the proper encoding?

Question

I have a .bin file that I would like to decode, but I don't know how it was encoded. Opening with notepad yields crazy jumbled text like this:

´è༩ôÉœ‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡‡†U‡gÎÓL¥:†ÊéõŽÕÄU‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡ÊéõŽ«§Áàæé]©§…ÈòH´èè…ÐâÍ…Æ÷I‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡÷Ž”²¶YÕ´©ŽÐó뎸쩸ꨎØæ¨U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡‡†U‡aîñL¥:†ÊéõŽÕÄU‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡ÉÔáë䧪]Xæó¤§ÓÀ…ÔïŽØô§†¼ëîΫ§€€óäO…ÊèÈ âô]8éë¼â‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡ðˆØ©éÔáëä©äŽ°¨‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡‡†U‡÷Ð.LL¥:†ÊéõŽÕÄU‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡ÅN€äì]\âîN…Åõ”âô]Læ㸧ª]4îôHé§H¸§ÅN€äì]\âîN…Åõ”âô^…Áõ§èÎ…×æΔèõ …ÎéHõéÔ§Õ ”îèU‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡ðˆØ©÷ ¼ãèÉ€©äŽ°¨ôH€ó¨÷N€þ¨Ù͵±XÑ°´Å¿°ÙÕµ¾å·‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡‡†U‡çã“ÞK¥:†ÊéõŽÕÄU‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡‡U‡× ¼ãèÉ€§Õ ”

My understanding is that notepad is trying to use the wrong decoding method, resulting in incorrect characters. If there is a program or website where I can just copy the text and try a bunch of methods of decoding I would really appreciate a link.

Thanks!

Answer 1

You can use Notepad++ install the plugin for hex editor. Once you have that, all you need to do is some kind of combination and permutation, depending upon what kind of data is held in you binary file (also while doing it keep in mind the byte order little or big endian).