A system determines the data stored on a piece of magnetic media by obtaining an image that represents the magnetic state of the piece of magnetic media using a magneto-optic image sensor. In an example, the image sensor is connected to a mechanism that moves over the piece of magnetic media, and the system takes a plurality of images which are stitched together into a composite image of the state of the piece of magnetic media. The system analyzes the image to identify regions that contain data, extracts the encoded data from the regions. The encoded data is decoded in accordance with an encoding scheme used by the piece of magnetic media. In some examples, a file structure is applied to the data and data files are recovered from the image. In various examples, the piece of magnetic media can be hard disk media, floppy disk media, or magnetic tape.