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| Thread ID: 58623 | 2005-06-06 14:57:00 | What program made .dat file? | Vince (406) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 361744 | 2005-06-07 22:03:00 | The .dat files in question were created by me to keep sensitive information private. I have forgotten which program I used when I did so. Yes I know, DUMB! However I do need to open them.This may be a bit obvious, but have you just tried opening them with Word/Excel/any other app? Depending on what type of sensitive information it was, (text, numbers etc). Start the app, Go to the "open file" dialog, and select "all files" in the drop-down, and see how you go. Don't know what you are going to do about the encryption though. HTH. |
Tony (4941) | ||
| 361745 | 2005-06-08 05:30:00 | "... not like .doc with word or .zip with winzip... " . I've seen many files with a .doc "extension" which weren't made with MS Word. ;) Computers had "document" files many years before there was a Microsoft Corporation, let alone MS Windows and Word. There are lots of files made with Phil Karn's ZIP compression which don't have ".zip" extension. You can't trust "extensions" to identify a file. Only OSs which store file characterisics identifying the creation software can know. ;) *nix can use an empirical approach: the file command uses the magic file to identify files from internal evidence. The magic file has been compiled over the years from all sorts of sources. |
Graham L (2) | ||
| 361746 | 2005-06-08 11:14:00 | It could only be a wild guess as to what programme you used to save your files with DAT extensions. For all I know you simply right clicked on the file and renamed it with the DAT extenstion. If you did that then just reverse the process or select OPEN WITH and choose Notepad. However, you mention the file is encrypted so that probably would fail. What you could do is copy the file to a disk then borrow a PC with MS-DOS, (e.g. Windows 98 etcetera), and from a MS-Dos command prompt type the following (assuming your file is on a floppy disk and is called secret.DAT) C:\WINDOWS>EDIT /75 A:\secret.DAT This will open the DAT file in a MS-Dos editor where with any luck you'll be able to view what ever it is you hid there. From the FILE menu of the editor you can choose to save the file with a new extension as well which may help for later editing. Regards, Timothy |
AlphabetSoup (8128) | ||
| 361747 | 2005-06-08 14:46:00 | Thanks all, for your sugestions. I finaly figured out the problem. The .dat files were backups of Password Safe files. The problem arose from my naming like files of a different type. Dumb Dumb Dumb! The situation will be rectifyed. | Vince (406) | ||
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