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General Forums => The Workshop => Topic started by: Nafigo on January 02, 2006, 07:07:46 PM

Title: Simple .sys file
Post by: Nafigo on January 02, 2006, 07:07:46 PM
You know what tool or way to interprete .sysfile ? I just can't read its conteint,
dummy question I know but enlighten me, thanks
Title: Re: Simple .sys file
Post by: MusicalMike on January 02, 2006, 07:41:53 PM
Its binary data, you have to first figure out the file format it uses, then you have to build an interpreter that can rebuildthe file in a human readable format. I have only resently (3+ months ago) started experimenting with binary data specifically in that I am building a disassembler for PE files. Typically, every binary file has one or more file "Headers" that contain data abouit how the proceeding data should be interpreted. If you can figure out how the header is structured, you can use your favorite high level language (mine is c++) to define a data structure for the header, load said header into the data structure, and use the data. Without knowing which .sys files you are looking at, and without documentation on their file formats, this is about all I can say about how to read their data. By the way, this is not a dumb question. One other thing you should knowthough is, the ascii characters you see in what ever text editor you are using to view the file have little to do with what the file actually says. The only reason why it probably looks like jiberish is because the text editor when reading a binary file will enterpret every 8 bits (1 byte) in the data stream as an ascii character.

PS. Why do you need to read the data?
Title: Re: Simple .sys file
Post by: Robert Collins on January 12, 2006, 06:05:18 PM
Quote from: Nafigo on January 02, 2006, 07:07:46 PM
You know what tool or way to interprete .sysfile ? I just can't read its conteint,
dummy question I know but enlighten me, thanks

What .sys file are you refering to? There are about 40 or more such .sys files on the system and some are already in text format.
Title: Re: Simple .sys file
Post by: PBrennick on January 19, 2006, 05:08:38 AM
Nafigo,
My system has over 640 .sys files...  As Robert says, some are already in text format.  As far as how to read the ones in text format, they are written in a style very similar to .ini files so go with that.  The ones that are not in text format, you can read those using any debugger because they are com files (read com, not COM).

Paul