DAT files / registry issue?

General Topics
1

Hi all!

I tried to figure this out on my own, but just confusing myself more! And I just know someone here can help!

A client keeps sending me what should be a .wav file but the attachment is showing up as a .dat file. When I click on it, WordPerfect tries to open it. If I change the extension to .wav, save it that way, then click on it and try to open with WMP, PowerDVD, or my transcription program (Express Scribe) it works fine.

In my research, I came up with something that says sometimes you’ll get .dat files when there’s a problem with your registry? But the source I found that with, I found a few posts here about the company and they weren’t complimentary! (Uniblue)

So, anyone have a clue as to what’s going on? I just want to make sure that it’s okay to do what I’m doing with the file (changing the extension and using it that way). Is it an issue on their end or mine, or is there any way to tell? (I’ll admit that with the little bit of knowledge I have about computers, theirs is a lot less!)

Thanks again! :slight_smile:

Pam

2

Hope this is helping
http://filext.com/faq/open_dat_file.php
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fileextensions/f/dat-file.htm

3

Thanks, Pondus, this is very helpful.

Interesting, though…

“Important: You cannot usually change a file extension (like the DAT file extension) to one that your computer recognizes and expect the newly renamed file to be usable. An actual file format conversion using one of the methods described above must take place in most cases.” (from the about.com link in the above e-mail)

This is what I did and it worked…I renamed the .dat file to .wav. The .dat didn’t work with the program I needed it to work with and the .wav did. (WAV files are what I usually get from this client.) Guess I’m just lucky it worked for me! And it’s from a regular client, so I feel the file is safe.

Thanks!!

Pam