Ok, I think I have learned more than I ever wanted to know reading through these threads...everything except the main questions I have!

I have 23 CDs that have episodes of an 80s cartoon on them. I am running Windows XP. When I open the CDs there are several folders. (CDDA, CDI, EXT, MPEGAV, SEGMENT, VCD). The main file is located in the 'MPEGAV' folder. It is called "MUSIC01.DAT". I can play one or two of these CDs directly from the CD and it will play in Windows Media Player by opening this main file. The others I cannot view or copy. I am attempting to copy them to my hard drive so I can return them to the person that let me borrow them. When I try to copy them this is the error message I receive "Cannot Copy: Invalid MS-DOS function".

If there is ANYONE that can help me - I would REAALLY Appreciate it! Reading some of the other threads, this seems like a basic question. I have some encoding knowledge from helping my boyfriend in the past, but neither of us are familiar with .DAT files at all.

If this questions is as basic as I think it may be, please take just a few minutes to explain this to me! Thanks in advance for your time :)

- Jessica

-- Yunica (jesstrish@comcast.net), April 20, 2004

Answers

The Files in the folders MPEGAV are the Main VCD Files. It seems you have some problem in copying the DAT files to your hard disk because of damaged CD. It is very common in VCDs. This can be confirmed when you are playing the VCDs in a VCD player. It will play with jerks or some Distorted patters may come on the screen. There is an way to overcome this. If your CDs are not heavily damaged then use VCDGear and select DAT to MPEG and copy. This will help. If this one doesn't workout then use Nero. Select the Recorder as Image recorder. Make Images of the VCDs. If this doesn't go thorough then no body can help you. If you are able to create images then use VCDGear and select option an MPG fro Nero Image and you will be end up with MPG files. The advantage in VCDGear is It will get the files upto the place where it can't read from the CD.

-- Balan K (balanknalab@hotmail.com), April 20, 2004.

If you cannot get the .DAT file off the disc with a simple copy, then a program like VCD gear probably isn't going to help you either, as they use the same low-level functions to move the files.

Nero will work, but it will make a image file. Select "Image Recorder" under "Recorder" then click the "copy cd" icon. Under the "Read Options," check "Ignore Illegal TOC Type," "Force raw reading" on Data mode 1 and 2, use the drop down "On errors..." select "try to correct data" and under Audio tracks, select all the boxes. Then hit the "copy" button.

That will make an image file. To get the .DAT out of the image file, get a program called Daemon Tools. It allows you to "mount" an image and make the computer think it's a real CD drive. Copy the .DAT out of the image like a normal file. You can then process the .DAT file just like any other you've copied off a VCD.

If the video you're watching is looks ok when you play it from disc, chances are it's going to be OK when you play the extracted .DAT file.

-- Bryan (gryps-innocens@gryphon.zzn.com), April 21, 2004.

I have tried the first option and i have found to be successful many times.

For the second option if you want the original DAT file itself, then NERO itself has one IMAGEDRIVE Program. It will be there in Program Files\Ahead\Nero\Misc Folder. Install. Run Image Drive. Load the Image that you have created. It will be available as a additional CDROM drive.

-- Balan K (balanknalab@hotmail.com), April 22, 2004.