TAO file

I d/l a .rar file. WinRAR would not open it - said no valid archives. I changed the extension to .bin and tried opening the file with ISObuster. Got: Session 1, Track 01, LBA 0, 698.18MB, bytes 732,098,560. I chose to extract 'RAW but convert to User DAta'. When extracting this way I got a first error msg "Unreadable sector" and selected "Replace with all zeroes". Then second error msg "Number of Errors 1, Address etc, and did I want to delete this file". I said No. After this ISObuster's extraction process presented me with a .TAO file. Tried opening this with Alcohol 120% - said type of file unknown. Tried burning it with Nero and got the Foreign Image Settings box - Data Mode 1, Block size 2048, RAW data not checked. This burned successfully but CD was blank.

1. Why would a burning program not know it was burning a blank CD?
2. What program deals with TAO files?
3. The properties of this file showed Mode 2 Form 1 which, from this forum, appears to be a game! I did not think I was d/l a game.
4. Am I correct in thinking my d/l is corrupt in view of the 2 error messages I got and in view of other posts here saying if you see only Track 01 with no subdirectories you will burn a coaster?

Thanks for clearing up my thinking. This is an excellent learning forum (I'm totally new as of this week to this stuff) and the moderators are to be congratulated for their input.

Xtreme1

 

im havin the same problem...i have a .tao file and i dont know what in the world to do with it..any help would be very much appreciated...thanks

 

I would suggest that anyone who ends up with an extracted .TAO file might as well save themselves lots of grief and ditch it. ISObuster was the only friendly program in extraction of an .RAR file but as far as converting or trying to get further inside the .TAO, no program wanted to know about it.

Nero and Acohol 120% both burned it "successfully" but the CD was blank. I have since read that unless your CD burner was bought over the last 18 months you cannot burn RAW data. That's probably why my burner failed. I still do not understand why Nero or Alcohol thought they were doing a successful burn though.

OK I'm done, but thanks for a great forum you guys. I plan to sleep tonight!

Xtreme1

 

For those pulling their hair out over a .tao file extension may I suggest changing the file extension to .avi. As soon as I tried this WMP claimed the file and on double clicking started playing a movie. It may be that another file extension is needed to free up a .tao file but for what it's worth this may help some others.

Xtreme1