Hard Disk Backup on CD

M

mrf1234

New Member
I use to own a Toshiba laptop and back in 2003, I backed up my hard disk before getting rid of the laptop. I used an external CD burner with a Nero program.

I recently lost a couple of CD’s that contained some word documents that I wish to view. I inserted the 2003 hard disk backup with the hope that I could download these documents. I expected to see a list of all files on the CD but instead there was only one file called “BK_05_07” which I assume means “back up 5 of 7 disks). When I clicked to open, it asked me what program created it. It is a DAT file.

I don’t know much about files so I don’t know what to do. I tried to open it with Internet Explorer and nothing happened. I also tried to open it with Microsoft Word but it said that file was too large to view. I only want to download the word documents that were in my old computer. What can I do?

Thanks for any help,
maggie
 
First of all Welcome to the Computer Forum! http://www.computerforum.com/70672-official-welcome-thread.html Just a reminder to be sure to review the http://www.computerforum.com/52038-forum-rules.html

Your problem is determing what was used to create the backup files that Nero burned to cd-rs. It sounds like the program used compressed everything into one large file where you will now need the same or similar program to decompress the archove seen on the "BK_05_07" disk. The number there could also have been a May 7th date signature. You won't be able to open any files on a cd-r by opening IE to your home page. You could try Word Perfect if you were using an MS software to save documents at the time.
D

DAT Data file

DAT WordPerfect Merge Data

DAT Extension used for some MPEG formats
 
Thanks for response

Thank you for your response. I believe I was using Microsoft Word 2000 when I backed up the files. When I tried to open with Microsoft word it said file was too large to open. Is there any way to find out what program I may have used to compress the files.

My new laptop is has a lot more memory than the older one and I am now using Microsoft Word 2003.

Maggie
 
If you can't open the archives with the 2003 version you may have uninstall this version and run the 2000 version long enough to open and save files from the cds you originally made. Once you have those saved into folders as separate files you then can reinstall the 2003 version if all goes well.

Word Pad in Windows is obviously a smaller tool provided by Microsoft then their other products sold separately. XP is backward compatible with a good deal of programs for trying this out. It's one thought to look into. Yes the removal and reinstallation is an annoyance at times but could help out there as a last resort more then anything.

There are freeware tools for Word 2000/NT that could simply open or convert the formats to allow access with 2003 or another program. Some to look over are found at http://www.simtel.net/category.php%5Baction%5Dbrowse&i=30&id=325&f=%7C%7C%7C%7C&s=product.date_released%7CDESC
 
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