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[Hi]

I know this isn't an emulation site, but it's my favorate forum.

I downloaded the psx game Harry potter and the Chamber of Secrets I was expecting the contents of my download to contain a .bin and a .cue file or a .iso and a .cue file. Instead, I got a .mdf and a .mds file.

How do I use these files? Is it possible/how can I run them in epsxe?

[juancaretta]

Those are Alcohol 120% images, if EPSXE doesn't recognize it, use DAEMON Tools or Alcohol 120% to mount the images, and then configure EPSXE to use the virtual drive.

[Hi]

If I burned them to a cd with roxio easy cd creator, would that work too. I don't want to have to deal with virtual drives and stuff. On the other hand, I don't want to waist a cd ether.

[dantheman]

CDs are dirt cheap.  If you get them on sale you can get them for like 7 cents per CD.  Go ahead and waste one to see if it works.  Just make sure you're actually burning it with something that can burn the MDS format.  Simply making a data CD consisting of those files won't do you any good.

[Hi]

All the same, I only have 6 cd's and probably won't be getting more for a while. It would involve getting out of the house, something that's a lot harder than it should be.

edit: I missed part of your post. Making a data cd won't work? So, what exactly will besides "A program"

[dantheman]

I'm not really sure.  I know that for instance with ISO images, you need something like burnatonce that can handle the ISO filetype and recognize it as a CD image.  I don't know what software can recognize the MDS filetype.

Basically, an ISO file is a byte-for-byte copy of the contents of a CD.  The program needs to be able to recognize this and burn it back byte-for-byte.  Once burned, there could be many files actually on the CD.  I don't know of any program can handle the MDS format though.  

Perhaps it might be simpler to think of the ISO file as a .zip file without any compression.  It's a single file, but at the same time it contains many smaller files inside it.  Burning an ISO to a data CD is sort of like putting a zip in a zip - won't do anything.  

It might be simpler to mess around with Daemon Tools.  Besides, I'm getting myself more and more confused by the second, and I don't really have a good handle on these concepts to begin with, so I'll stop talking.

[juancaretta]

I recommend you to use Daemon Tools or download Alcohol 120%. Alcohol has virtual drives, and it also burns MDF files

[VoX]

Yes use daemon tools, no need for a cd to burn on too, and use the input plugins from ngemu

[Perseid]

I know ImgBurn will read them. I think Nero will read them. The biggest thing is to make sure the program will read the MDS(the little file) not just the MDF(the big file). It will first of all prove your software knows what's going on and you might need data in the MDS.

[fexo]

Try Isobuster- this will extract the iso from the file and it can be burned easily. I have done this before with the alcohol format files.

[Hi]

Okay, for some reason I feel like a total idiot right now. (not any fault on your part guys.) Okay, I'm confused.

I think I'd rather have a program that will burn the mds/mdf file than one that will emulate it. Emulation would mean keeping the emulator running for as long as I want to play the file. No, I want to "fix" the file and have no more hassle if possible. But then... it seems like burning this file will be complicated to.

Is there a way I can just CONVERT the mds and mdf files into an iso or bin and cue file?

But if I can't convert the mds and mdf files to an iso, I think I should try to burn them to a cd. Please, I know I should understand, but what program should I use? So far, you have all suggested several to me.

I did some resarch, and alchahol 120% is shareware, not freeware, which makes me reluctant to download it. Understand that I'm VERY low on hard disk space so I'm trying to download as little things as possible.

[fexo]

http://www.download.com/3000-2248-10208087.html

This is free (isobuster). Extract the iso then burn it. I don't know about Roxio, but you can download a trial version of Nero 6 or 7 (Nero burning rom) then burn the inage.

See also this thread about the topic that you are asking about

http://www.moviecodec.com/topics/1701p2.html

[kkan]

REMEMBER when burning a PSX game DO NOT REPAIR the SUB CHANNEL DATA this is where the psx LIBCRYPT psx protection is stored  

use ALCOHOL 120% and use the psx 1/ps1 profile and choose to NOT REPAIR sub channel data .. then burn at something like 16x and not max speed for reliable results


You could also burn with CLONE CD and again choose not to repair subchannel data  

NERO sucks at burning PSX games but its possible with older games that do not contain LIBCRYPT protection  


best thing is to BURN with the software that actually created the IMG file which in this case was no doubt ALCOHOL 120%

Anymore questions on PSX burning just ask

alcohol 120% is worth every penny its a great tool for backups and burning


the 30 day trial should be enough for a good few burns and for this purpose

I know a few of the A 120% development team and have been a beta tester in the early days  

[Perseid]

I did some resarch, and alchahol 120% is shareware, not freeware, which makes me reluctant to download it. Understand that I'm VERY low on hard disk space so I'm trying to download as little things as possible.

http://www.imgburn.com/. Free. Burns .MDS files. It doesn't support disks with audio tracks, though. You will probably need Alcohol for that.

[juancaretta]

Alcohol also has different profiles for burning, you can choose Playstation CD and it configures itself, so it burns OK, try it, if you don't like it you can uninstall it.