thank you for all your help and suggestions. it was a cockpit problem for which i abjectly apologise. the cdrom reads just fine. the jpegs are all there. sorry to have used up the bandwidth. dan j. daniel moylan 84 harvard ave #2 brookline, ma 02446-6202 617-232-2360 (tel) 810-454-1823 (fax) jdm34@cornell.edu oledan.pair.com