Trying to copy a VOB File - why won't it work?

[TheMoreItSnows]

OK found some old DVDs with clips of the kids on when they were small - a bit scratched but they play OK (just, it is a struggle though) on the DVD player.

Thought I'd better copy them onto my laptop and reburn new DVDs.

But one is a VOB file, 921,788KB and it just won't copy across to my desktop. It gets to '60 secs left' and just gives up telling me 'can't read from source file or disk'. However a smaller VOB file (of 209,552KB) has copied across with no trouble.

2 questions - could a big scratch on the DVD be preventing the bigger file from 'finishing' copying or is it likely to be something else causing a problem?

If so can anyone recommend a scratch repair kit, or can any of you technical savvie guys suggest an alternative way to proceed?

Off to do kids' tea so might not be back for a while......

Thanks in advance.

[TheFallenNinja]

Well, theres the old toothpaste trick, it gets rid of light scratches and might help, just polish in small circles with some toothpaste and a little water, or you can stick the DVD in the freezer (I have done these myself with varied results).

More conventional tools are disk doctor, pricey but depends on the value of the content.

[CruelAndUnusualParenting]

Our local Asda has a CD/DVD repair service. It's just a quid, IIRC. I haven't used it and I have no idea if it's any good.

Alternatively, I have cleaned up dodgy CDs with Pledge in hte past.