RE: Problems Reading Saved Files With Unicode Names

From: Geoff Back (Geoff.Back@autocue.co.uk)
Date: Mon Jul 12 2004 - 09:58:15 CDT

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    Nicholas,

    1. Use CD ripping software to create an ISO image of the CDROM. Roxio's Easy CD Creator, Nero, etc - all can do this.

    Either:
    2a. Use a quality ISO image editor tool to rename the files. You'll have to do a bit of research to find one but they do exist - it's just been a while since I used one.

    Or:
    2b. Using a good hex editor, directly replace the question marks in the directory structure with valid ASCII character codes.

    3. Either mount the ISO image (VirtuoCD or similar can do this) or burn the ISO back to another CDROM.

    I don't know of an easier way, unfortunately.

    Cheers,

    Geoff.

    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Geoff Back
    geoff@demonlair.co.uk

    What if none of us really exist? What if we're all just characters in someone else's dreams?

    -----Original Message-----
    From: unicode-bounce@unicode.org [mailto:unicode-bounce@unicode.org]On
    Behalf Of Nicholas Dinh
    Sent: Mon, 12 July 2004 07:00
    To: unicode@unicode.org
    Cc: nicholasdinh@msn.com
    Subject: Problems Reading Saved Files With Unicode Names

    Hi,

    I think I have a problem that is related to unicode translation. I have
    some files with filenames saved in unicode with special characters. This is
    fine as I can open it. The problem began when I had to reconfigure my
    computer system and backed up all my files. To do this, I backed it up to a
    read-only CDROM. So far so good (but big mistake).

    However, I guess my CD burning software does not support unicode or does not
    recognize the files with unicode characters in the filename and does not
    warn of this. Thus, when it wrote to the CD, it converted some file names
    to something like MY??FILE.doc. Because the filename was automatically
    converted with "?" characters, it is considered and invalid file name and I
    can't open this. Reading the Microsoft knowledge base, I found that to
    bypass this problem I must change the name to something in regular ASCII.
    Problem is, the file is now "read-only" in the CD. I can't even copy it
    back to the hard drive to change the name because it gives me an error
    message. The CD is my only source for the original files.

    Does anyone have any thoughts on how I might be able to salvage these files?
    I've tried to save it to other media too (like flash memory cards) but it
    still did work. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    Best Regards,
    Nick

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