goofy tech question:

hi all, been out of the loop for a while...

anyway here it goes_

i just found 25 bakup cds i made a couple years ago from a 20g hd.

i now would like to reinstall these bakup cds to another 20 or 30g hd.

problem is that i dont know what program i used to bakup with!

here is what i do know:

bakup made roughly 2 years ago.
bakup file system was win98 or se
bakup file system was fat 32
when i put one of the bakup cds in my xp pro system and click explore, i find out that its a .dat format.
the cds are the gold Staples cds that are 80min 700mb.

is there any software that can tell me what program i used to make this bakup?

thanx all.

you may have used Windows own backup program. i've never really used it much but I believe it made Dat files. So you would need a windows 9X system to get at them. Other than that, you could always open the file in a text editor and see if there is any text that would indicate what program was used to compress it.

thanx Krieger,
ill give it a shot with the text editor.

ok i put bakup cd number 1 in the xp machine and opened it with notepad and this is what i get:

// tab size:4

typedef enum
{
MES_FATAL_ERROR=0, // "Fatal error; programm terminated!"
MES_UNKNOWN_ERROR, // "Unknown error"
MES_READ_ERROR, // "Read error:"
MES_WRITE_ERROR, // "Write error:"
MES_UNKNOWN_PART_TYPE, // "Unknown partition type"
MES_INSERT_CD, // "Please insert Backup CD mumber %d in drive %c:."
MES_INSERT_CD_OF_N, // "Please insert Backup CD mumber %d of %d in drive %c:."
MES_HEADER_ERROR, // "%s Sizeof=%ld, Header=%ld"
MES_HEADER_WRONG_SIZE, // "Wrong byte alignment in the backup header:"
MES_NO_VALID_CD, // "This doesn't seem to be a valid backup CD!"
MES_OPEN_BACKUP_ERR, // "Could not open the backup file!"
MES_READ_BACKUP_ERR, // "Could not read the backup file!"
MES_BACKUP_FILE_NOT_FOUND, // "Backup file not found!"
// 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
// 1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456
MES_PART_TABLE_HEAD, // "Part# Typ System S:Cyl Hd Sec E:Cyl Hd Sec Len MB "
MES_NO_VALID_PART_INFO, // "No valid partition info!"
MES_PRIMARY_PART, // "Pri"
MES_ABORT_EXT_PART, // "Read error! Aborting scan for extended partitions!"
MES_INVALID_EXT_PART_ENTRY, // "Invalid extended partition entry!"
MES_EXTENDED_PART, // "Ext"
MES_NUMBER_HARDDRIVE, // "%3d.harddisk ( %02X )"
MES_BIOS_EXTENTIONS_YES, // "LBA"
MES_BIOS_EXTENTIONS_NO, // "CHS"
MES_RESTORE_SEGMENT, // "Restoring segment using %s mode to sector %ld ..."
MES_READ_ERR_SEGMENT_FILE, // "Read error in segment file!"
MES_WRITE_ERR_DEST_HD_LBA, // "Write error on destination harddisk (LBA)!"
MES_WRITE_ERR_DEST_HD_CHS, // "Write error on destination harddisk (CHS)!"
MES_LAST_WRITTEN_BLOCK, // "Last written block=%ld"
MES_BAD_DEST_GEOMETRY, // "Cannot determine the destination drive's geometry!"
MES_UNEXPECTED_SEG_NAME, // "Unexpected segment file name!"
MES_MODIFIED_PARTITIONS_1, // "The harddisk partitions have been modified"
MES_MODIFIED_PARTITIONS_2, // "since the backup. Make sure, that you create"
MES_MODIFIED_PARTITIONS_3, // "a partition at Cylinder %d, Head %d and Sector %d,"
MES_MODIFIED_PARTITIONS_4, // "that ends at Cylinder %d, Head %d and Sector %d."
MES_BAD_SEGMENT_ADDRESS, // "Error. Segment address=%ld, but write address=%ld!!!Fixed."
MES_OPEN_SEGMENT_ERR, // "Cannot open segment file!"
MES_SEEK_SEGMENT_ERR, // "Cannot seek to the correct position within the segment file!"
MES_SEGMENT_INFO, // "FileLength=%ld Blks SegmentLength=%ld Blks"
MES_START_RESTORE, // "Press RETURN to restore Backup from %c to drive %02x "
MES_START_PART_RESTORE, // "Press RETURN to restore Backup from %c to drive %02x partition %d "
MES_RESTORE_LABEL, // " Restore "
MES_QUIT_LABEL, // " Quit "
MES_HEADLINE, // " Ahead: NERO CD-Backup Restore Programm "
MES_DEST_DRIVE_HEADLINE, // " Destinationdrive (BIOS #) mode"
MES_SOURCE_DRIVE_HEADLINE, // " Sourcedrive "
MES_NO_BIOS_EXT, // "Drive 0x%02X doesn't have BIOS extensions!"
MES_NO_BOOTSECTOR, // "Sorry, sector %ld doesn't seem to be a boot sector!"
MES_DOS_ONLY, // " Sorry, Ahead NERO Restore runs only in DOS-mode !!! "
MES_INCOMP_GEOM, // "Incompatible drive geometry"
MES_CANT_GET_GEOM, // "Cannot determine the backup geometry!"
MES_REALY_CANCEL, // "REALLY CANCEL? <ESC>=continue restore, <RET>=cancel"
MES_SEARCH_FILE, // " Searching for backup file ..."
MES_8GB_NO_EXT, // "Cannot support drives >8GB without BIOS-Extensions"
MES_OUT_OF_MEMORY, // "Out of memory !"


MES_REOE_SUCCESS, // "Partition reorganizing: successfull"
MES_REOE_INVALID_FILE_SYSTEM, // "Partition reorganizing: invalid file system"
MES_REOE_IO_ERROR_R, // "Partition reorganizing: read error"
MES_REOE_IO_ERROR_W, // "Partition reorganizing: write error"
MES_REOE_OUT_OF_MEMORY, // "Partition reorganizing: out of memory"
MES_REOE_SYS_CORRUPT, // "Partition reorganizing: system corrupt"
MES_REOE_BAD_GEOMETRY, // "Partition reorganizing: bad geometry"
MES_REOE_NEW_SIZE_NOT_MATCH, // "Partition reorganizing: new cluster size doesn't match"
MES_REOE_FILE_SYSTEM_CORRUPT, // "Partition reorganizing: file system corrupt"
MES_REOE_OUT_OF_SPACE, // "Partition reorganizing: out of space"
MES_REOE_INVALID_REQUEST, // "Partition reorganizing: invalid request"
MES_REOE_NO_SPACE_FOR_ALIGNMENT,// "Partition reorganizing: no space for alignment"
MES_REOE_NOT_YET, // "Partition reorganizing: not yet implemented?"

MES_CHECK_STRUCTURE, // "Check structure"
MES_MOVE_CLUSTER, // "Move cluster"
MES_ALIGN_CLUSTER, // "Align cluster"
MES_CREATE_NEW_STRUCTURES, // "Create new structures"
MES_COPY_STRUCTURES, // "Copy structures"

MES_RESTORING, // "Restoring"
MES_CANT_CREATE_LAYOUT, // "Cannot create compatible partition layout!"
MES_REBOOT, // "Press a key to REBOOT"
MES_DESTINATION_UNFIT, // "Destination is unfit"
MES_COULDNT_SET_TYPE, // "Couldn't set partition type!"
MES_SELECT_LANGUAGE, // "Please select language: (e) for english."
MES_WRONG_MESSAGE_NUMBER, // "Wrong message number at message: "
MES_NO_OPEN_MESSAGE_FILE, // "Could not open the messages file: "
MES_BROKEN_QUOTED_STRING, // "Broken quoted string"
MES_FILE_FOUND, // " Backup file found; please select destination"

} ERR_MSG_NUM;

i have no idea what to make of it.

wait i found this in that mess somewhere:

MES_DOS_ONLY, // " Sorry, Ahead NERO Restore runs only in DOS-mode !!! "

so i guess i used nero.

ill see if nero has info at there site.

thanx again bro!