File Stays As Dat File After Completion

[Hector]

Okay maybe I'm just being dumb but I'm having trouble finding all those helpful pinned KLite Help Topics that used to be everywhere!

Anyway, spent weeks downloading a file (really slow, most of time not connecting) and now it's finished it still shows up as a dat file with all it's numbers as it's file name as before! I read ages ago that there was often a simple way of manually sorting this out without having to download the file all over again (I'm not doing that&#33. Apparently this can happen with a file (such as mp3) when it is being previewed at the same time as it being completed. But this should be a bin file. Might it be safe to rename the file to what it should be called?

Appreciate any help with this one, my download speeds are bad enough without this happening! :helpsmile:

[Cyril]

Provided download was complete you can rename file with the correct extension (eg. avi) and shoul dbe okay.

[MUSLEMAN]

Originally posted by Hector@1 April 2004 - 07:05
Okay maybe I'm just being dumb but I'm having trouble finding all those helpful pinned KLite Help Topics that used to be everywhere!

Anyway, spent weeks downloading a file (really slow, most of time not connecting) and now it's finished it still shows up as a dat file with all it's numbers as it's file name as before! I read ages ago that there was often a simple way of manually sorting this out without having to download the file all over again (I'm not doing that&#33. Apparently this can happen with a file (such as mp3) when it is being previewed at the same time as it being completed. But this should be a bin file. Might it be safe to rename the file to what it should be called?

Appreciate any help with this one, my download speeds are bad enough without this happening! :helpsmile:

After my download is completed the file still appears as a .dat file

If you start a download, a .dat file (partial download) is created. It's important to notice, that the path to the current download folder is coded into the .dat file, together with other information like the filename. When the file is finished with downloading it will be renamed and put into the folder that is stored inside the .dat file. So it is important that that folder is present. If not, the file will stay a .dat file untill this 'old' folder is restored. Or worse, it might even get deleted (this happens when the 'old' and 'new' folders are on different partitions).

If you change the download folder or use a different setting after reinstallation you can still use the uncompleted .dat files. But after completion, the client tries to copy the final files to the original download folder. If this folder still exists, you may find the file there. If you have removed it, the .dat stays in your current download folder and cannot be copied. Do NOT rename it, because the download info is still attached to the end of the file. If you recreate the original folder, then the file will be copied to its final destiny.

If you can't remember your 'old' download folder, you can use the K-Dat or DatView tool to find it out.

[Hector]

Thanks for the reply.

In the mean time I found the FAQ that you replied back with, Musleman but unforunately I, heh, forgot to mention in my original messsage that I recently changed OS from 98 to XP, plugged in my old Hard Drive (with 98 on) as a slave and dragged the Dat file into my new shared folder. It carried on downloading and completed, but now it's just sitting there as a big dat file. K-dat doesn't show it in my shared folder (prob cos it's completed) so I can't make any changes to it (saw your post on it this morning). I've tried recreating my old shared folder on XP, but that hasn't worked. Apparently I can't rename it either! Is there a another way?

I'm not gonna bother downloading this sucker again!

[hungrylilboy]

did u try changing the extension as suggested, not changing the name? usually works. If not try using kazaa corrupt fixer to see if there are any corrupt patches from when u moved the dat file. If there are use KCF to re-download these bad patches

[Hector]

did u try changing the extension as suggested, not changing the name? usually works.

Hmm... Sorry new to XP can't figure out how to change the file extension. Not like 98 when you could just rename that part. Feel like such a dumbass! Gnnnnngh!

[Bowen747x]

i could b wrong but changing an extension in XP is slightly different, u have 2 go 2 the file properties and click "Open As..." and select the file type u want

[Hector]

i could b wrong but changing an extension in XP is slightly different, u have 2 go 2 the file properties and click "Open As..." and select the file type u want

Yeah, still won't let me change the file extension though, only which program to open it with. Any ideas for a '.bin' file?

[hungrylilboy]

go to tools in a folder, folder options, view and uncross hide file extensions for known file types.

then go to change name of file and change the part after the .

eg. say the file is called help.

at the moment it will show up as (after u have uncrossed the box as above) help.dat

change the file name to help.bin (or whatever u want to change it to.

just a question after seeing that u think its a bin file. Are you sure that it is still a dat file? A bin file will not change into a file icon as would an avi or a jpeg file. It would remain as an icon that is opened by an unknown program, SO therefore if u dont have a program selected to open dat files, then the icon will remain the same....

anyway do the above and u can see the file extension. If it needs changing, change it, if not burn it or whatever ur going to do with it

[tensegg]

dont forget DAT files can take up to 600 secs to change after completion