i have a file with the extension ".cdr" (it is NOT a corel draw file).
it is some sort of compressed file, or some sort of raw data file from
a cd. i need to know what i need to do to access the actual data. none
of the programs i have seem to recognize it. (fyi - this is some sort
of back-up data that i'm trying to restore for someone.) the file
needs to go on a windows 98 machine but it can be worked on on a win
2000 or win xp pro if it matters in anyway.

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Clarification of Question by eja216-ga on 07 Jul 2003 13:08 PDT

fyi - the file name is "amstc1.cdr" through "amstc7.cdr". they are all
individually burned on seven cds each. they range from approximately
500mb to 700mb a PIECE. they should not be JUST music files - it is my
understanding that they are programs AND music combined, however, i
guess that may not be the case. opening them in a text editor just
gives a huge file of ascii garbage. winzip does not recognize the
file, neither does an un-rar or un-ace program. as suggested by
vballguy, konverter seems to handle .cdr files, but i'm not sure as to
what i would want to be converting it to? it just gives other sound
options (convert .cdr to .mp3 etc). i am expecting these files to act
like rar or zip files, however, i just think that the .cdr format
might be some other level of compression - maybe zips or something lie
inside of it?

I really donīt know if this is helpful at all... but my 2 cents anyway:

http://www.airways.com/rvp/intro.html
http://www.marben-products.com/CDR/CDR-DSH.pdf
http://www.streamsoft.com/products/cdrChute.htm
http://www.schicktech.com/items.php?catid=271

thank you for looking, haloperidol, but those links don't seem to be
what i'm looking for... :\  i need a tutorial to tell me or a program
that can take this file and make it usable data for me. by the way,
it's musical files (programs and sound banks) that were backed up, if
that helps anyone. i'm thinking that maybe the ".cdr" extension was
added on as extra, and the file is just some kind of raw unassociated
data ?? if that's possible, waiting to be burned to a cd or something.
i have no clue. i'm upping the price to $10.00 in hopes that someone
will stumble across an answer.

Can you list what directory the file is in?  Is it in a system folder or
a users personal file?  CDR most comonly is a raw audio file format
(See:
http://whatis.techtarget.com/fileFormatC/0,289938,sid9,00.html)
What is the name of the file?  Does it look like a song name or an artist?
Does the name look like your friend created it or is is a program file?


As the other comment mentioned, can be almost anything from a call detail
record from the phone company to radar data.  I assume that you have tried to 
open it in notepad or wordpad and it is coming up as binary data (since ascii
would be easy to read).  

I would bet that it is a raw audio file.  If you don't know what music it is, 
it probably is not worth the time.

Sorry for the double post, but you might try the evalution version of a 
program called Konvertor at
http://www.logipole.com/indexe.html
The site lists cdr as a valid extension and will convert it to different
formats for you.
(list of extensions is)
http://www.logipole.com/kformatsau_us.htm

I have to admit that I have never tried the program so I have no idea how
hard it is.

Goodluck,

-VballGuy

Just to see, try opening it with any program. Try Winzip for example,
open the program first, then use the File --> Open menu, then open the
CDR file from there. If Winzip opens it, that's the program, and you
can rename the file to ZIP or something. Try any program you have,
Word, Adobe Reader, ACDSee, Notepad, and see which opens it.

I would think this is most likely a CD image and not necessarily
(just) music.  This will be a binary image of whatever was on the CD. 
You can burn the image with Nero Burning ROM's "Burn Image" command. 
There will be some settings that will have to be guessed at in this
case.  If the CD doesn't work try other settings.  There are only 4 (I
think) possible settings and only 2 of them are relatively common. 
Use a CD-RW on the first CD to find the right format settings.

Last I checked the FAQ for Nero gave some instructions on burning CD
images.  Hopefully this will get you started.

Bradley