Joining .VOB Files

[SimonSez07]

is there a quicker way to join my vob files on an ntfs partition without actually binary copying the data. like a tool that would create a new MFT entry pointing to the same data but all referenced to one file. does this make sense?

currently you can use COPY /B VTS_01_01.VOB + VTS_01_02.VOB VTS_01.VOB but this takes all day because it makes a duplicate copy of the data. i was looking at tools like "fast file joiner" and "advanced file joiner" and the like but i think these all do the same thing.

[r0lZ]

I don't think such a tool exists, and I'm even sure it cannot exists. You can't reuse datas on a partition without copying them (unless the data are exactly the same in the original file and linked file).
Writing a tool to join parts of a file without recreating a new file would invoke processing the pointers inside the file system. Since NTFS is a black box copyrighted by M$, the information to write such a tool is missing!

[blutach]

If you are trying to join VOB from a commerical DVD, maybe you could rip with DVD Decrypter and make the file splitting option = none. That might work.

If not, mount the DVD with Daemon and try the same thing.

Regards

[mpucoder]

Joining files (any type) without copying is a trick that can be done only at the lowest level of access, and is specific to the file system. I've only seen it done on system utilities. The problem is in order to join the files all but the first file must be an exact multiple of the allocation unit (cluster). This is because the way it's done is to modify the file allocation tables to chain the files together as one.

[SimonSez07]

thanks for the info. i was afraid this was the case. but its nice to have a forum of people this knowlegable. will have to use blutach's suggestion. i know this can also be done with smartripper.