How to copy a vcd?

[videophile]

A friend of mine gave me a pile of VCDs to choose from, I picked a few and tried to burn my own copies from them on my CD burner. I only have Roxio lite version(ie. no making video CD or slide shows). But, I didn't think it would matter, because I was only trying to make an exact copy and all the information/codes are right there on the CD. But, when I tried to make a DATA copy and told it to copy all files, it locked up after about 14% thru, then I tried to do a single click "copy CD", it locked up again after about 14% thru. It's not my computer, it's a P4 w/plenty of RAM and HD space. I just can't figure out why it won't work??? Do you think I could just copy and paste the files to my hard drive and then try to burn the files onto a disk from there??? Also are there any FREE programs that are simple(many of the suggested free ones are a bit complicated for what I need) to use to do this? I don't care to make a technically perfect, super high quality, overanalized, tweaked and pefected award winning VCD...I just want to make a simple copy. ANY help appreciated. P L E A S E

Thanks

[ryanreko]

well you could personally rip the .dat files yourself and then use a program like vcdeasy to create an image... although it would be a little more time consuming it should work.... good luck

[sterno]

I'm not familiar with the Roxio software, but if it has a tool to copy an audio CD you might try that. You can't just copy the files around for VCDs.

If that doesn't work you could install VCDEasy and use its cdrdao front-end to extract the VCD to a bin/cue set and burn that. You'll have to have a working ASPI layer, though.

[videophile]

Sterno,
So you mean I could download the freeware VCDeasy, use it to pull the info from the VCD, then use it to burn my own copy, right? However, can you elaborate a bit more as far as a "working ASPI layer" what is it and how do I get it?

[vitualis]

Your disc probably has an unrecoverable error somewhere on the disc (not unlikely on VCDs) and "dumb" DAO CD copying tools will stop on those errors.

To copy the disc, the easiest way is to get CloneCD or CDRWin. If you set it to ignore errors, then it will copy just fine. Since there isn't much you can do about the errors anyway (and they will *usually* cause only minor glitches if at all on playback), this is still the easiest way.

If there is an unrecoverable error on the disc, you generally can't simply use Windows Explorer to copy over the "DAT" file onto the HDD in any case.

Regards.

[videophile]

Michael,
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I knew it could'nt be that complicated