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Unsolvable PC Problem? Can you think outside the box? (1 Viewer)

Vince Maskeeper

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Ok Guys, here's a fun one...
I burned a CD with MP3s on it for my RIO VOLT mp3 player. The Rio player reads data formatted mp3 cds.
Somehow, I had the settings in NERO incorrect, and it truncated the file names to something like 27 characters.
As a result, if any files had a long band name (for example a band called "PLANES MISTAKEN FOR STARS") they were truncated after the band name- so the song name was cut off. As a result I ended up with several songs that have the exact same file name:
thing1.jpg

While they have the same name, windows obviously recognizes them as different files (as you can see above, different file sizes and dates). The rio volt player also recognizes them as different files- and is able to play each one.
However- if I try to OPEN the file, or copy or do anything with them in windows- windows will only deal with the FIRST file of the list. So if I try to copy the 3rd file, I copy it- and windows simply ignores me and copies the first file. If I try to open the file- the same thing- no matter which I pcik, windows opens the first one. If I open all of them- I get a dozen copies of the first one.
My first thought was to check a DOS shell and see if the files had a numeral distinction. However they don't:
thing2.jpg

Can anyone think of a way I could take these files off this CD and rename them so I have all the individual files? Right now, I'm completely out of ideas. Again- windows knows there are multiple files, but all attempts to interact with them just forces you to deal with the first one.
 
Joined
Apr 13, 1999
Messages
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Try and archive the files with zip, rar, or ace format. (there are utilities to do this in DOS also.)

Save the archive to your PC and then unarchive the files one at a time with a different name.

This should work.
 

Vince Maskeeper

Senior HTF Member
Joined
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Messages
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Try and archive the files with zip, rar, or ace format. (there are utilities to do this in DOS also.)

Save the archive to your PC and then unarchive the files one at a time with a different name.

This should work.
Nope.

Tried it with both a ZIP and a RAR using winrar. Same problem as usual- I chose all 10 files to create the archive and when I reopended the archive file- it contained only the first file. Windows applications cannot seem to realize there are multiple files with the same name- and instead just sees one file, the first one.

This was a good idea- and if it could have created the archive with all the files, I think it would have worked. However- I encountered the same problem again... it wouldn't acknowledge that there were multiple files when created the archive, instead it just included the first one.

-Vince
 

Jon_R

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Jan 31, 2001
Messages
174
That is a problem.

I think what you have run into is a file system limitation and an error in the CDFS on that disc. Obviously there is some form of distinction between the files because multiple files with the same name cannot exist in the same directory. However from that window you pasted it looks as if there is none, therefore I think that there may be no way to get the files. Now, if it were on a hard drive, or a cdrw, you could get the first file, rename it, get the second file, which would then be the first file after the first file was renamed/deleted. And so one until all files are done. You can't do that however because its on a CD, and I presume a non cdrw.

You may say, but the RIO can read it. Yeah, but it must read files differently than Windows. It might even allow for this type of instance.

HOWEVER, if you were to make an .iso, then use some sort of program like WinImage, and extract and delete the songs one at a time. Like find the songs, extract rename to correct name, delete from iso, repeat.

That might work.

Keep us updated

This post filled up the time where I was supposed to be getting the TrueUnix 64, Vax/VMS, Oracle and Access databases all talking to each other...

(press F20 to continue)
 

Kevin P

Screenwriter
Joined
Jan 18, 1999
Messages
1,439
I'm afraid you may be out of luck. The CD was burned with duplicate file names in the same directory. Normally this isn't possible on a Windows file system (short of having a corrupted directory entry). The path name is the unique identifier for any file on a disk, so there's no way to get to the 2nd duplicate, 3rd duplicate, etc. in either DOS or Windows (I would try DOS though, in case it generates unique short names).
If you can extract an ISO image from the CD (that would normally be used to make copies of the CD), you might be able to hack the image and replace the duplicate names with unique ones. Then burn the hacked image to another CD. Then you should be able to extract the files.
Do you still have the original MP3s you made the CD from on your hard drive? I assume you don't, if we're having this discussion in the first place, but I don't want to rule out an obvious solution! :)
KJP
 

MichaelPe

Screenwriter
Joined
Feb 22, 1999
Messages
1,115
What I find particularly interesting is the fact that your data CD is being recognized as an "Audio CD" in Windows Explorer. Weird... :)
However, you may be able to boot from an emergency Windows boot disk (be sure to include the CD-ROM driver in your CONFIG.SYS, and MSCDEX in your AUTOEXEC.BAT). The files should be listed as: PLANES~1.MP3, PLANES~2.MP3, etc...
Otherwise, you can try to rip the CD to an image. There are lots of utilities out there (I've even written one myself) that will let you extract files from an image.
 

Wayne Bundrick

Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 17, 1999
Messages
2,358
I took a closer look at the snapshots, and I don't think DOS mode is going to work. The second snapshot shows that all the files have the same short DOS name.

I think the only way out is to hexedit the ISO.
 

Salvador

Second Unit
Joined
Dec 4, 2001
Messages
431
Vince, i had the exact same dilemma when my aunt told me to transfer her files from work into one CD. Long file names became a major problem since her Acrobat help file didn't recognize the truncated file names that Nero produced. I failed to find a specific setting in Nero to bypass the truncation. So after much experimentation (and a bunch of coasters) i discovered that using CDRWIN (www.goldenhawk.com) was the best cd-r program to avoided getting long file names truncated. Unfortunately i don't have CDRWin in my PC anymore as it does some funny things to CloneCD when both of them are installed at the same time. If i remember correctly though, i just copied all the needed files into one directory and burned them on a CD with a couple of options bypassing any windows or DOS file name conventions ticked on the checkbox. I can't remember what combination i used but it is certainly possible to preserve file names longer than 27 characters when burned to a CD.
Hope this helps. If you still have any trouble i'll try to install cdrwin in my other machine and give you the exact settings.
 

Salvador

Second Unit
Joined
Dec 4, 2001
Messages
431
I think i misinterpreted your question. The solution that i previously posted applies to long filenames for data cd's but not for music cd's. For music cd's simply click on record Disc and load the tracks that you want. If your rio player supports cd text, you can type it in the dialoge window once your prompted for the tracks. I'm pretty sure that it won't cut short long filenames because i just burned some data cd's a while ago with 70+ character filenames.
 

Iain Lambert

Screenwriter
Joined
Jun 7, 1999
Messages
1,345
Just in case you've not tried it, I'll pop my head up to confirm - the Win98 boot floppy does indeed have CD drivers on it. Personally, I think its by far the best emergency DOS disk of all Windows versions.
 

Christian Behrens

Supporting Actor
Joined
Mar 2, 2000
Messages
719
Location
SF Bay Area
Real Name
Christian Behrens
Vince,
Maybe you can access the files by using a nice freeware tool called IsoBuster. You can look at ISO images this way or just CDs. Maybe that will allow you to copy the different files off the CD one by one (into different directories).
HTH,
-Christian
 

Dave Smith

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Dec 29, 2000
Messages
182
Windows is not recognising the different files. It's simply reading and reporting the contents of the TOC (table of contents). The TOC was created with all files having the same filename, but Windows (and DOS) relies on unique filenames. Even though the table has multiple entries, you won't be able to access the individual files through any OS, so booting into DOS isn't going to help.
The idea of using Isobuster (or CDMage or any of those programs) is a good one. I'm not saying it'll work, rather, it's pretty much the only thing that MIGHT work. The other alternative might be the latest Norton tools, but I don't know if they'd be able to recover a screwed-up disc like that :)
 

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