How to extract any version of SWF from Adobe Director (.DIR) files for free

Have you ever had an old Adobe Director file and wanted to extract some swf’s but don’t have the original FLA’s handy? There are some free tools to extract swf’s but most don’t work for Flash 7 and above.

Requirements:

• Adobe Director
• Your original DIR file
• A HEX editor

1. First grab a free HEX editor such as XVI32 http://www.chmaas.handshake.de/delphi/freeware/xvi32/xvi32.htm
2. Open up the DIR file you want to extract the SWF file from and copy it into a new empty DIR file.
3. Open up your newly created DIR file with your HEX editor and look for the sequence ‘CWS’ for Flash 6+ and ‘FWS’ for Flash 5 and below. This should be about a page or so down.
4. Delete from the beginning character of the file to the character just before ‘CWS’ or ‘FWS’. In XVI32 you would do a ‘Block Mark’ at the beginning and another at the spot before ‘CWS’ or ‘FWS’ then do a ‘Block Delete’.
5. Save the file and rename the extension to ‘SWF’ and voila!