How can I open DAT files

Hi I'm new to majorgeeks.com. Sure hope you can help. Couple of months ago, I became unable to sign into Yahoo Messenger anymore..No clue why....I "know my password"... In the Archives in Messenger I had two months worth of important conversations stored, of course since I cannot sign in, I cant get to them. I found this files on my computer though, they are DAT files, when I press to open I get the warning about ruining my system..JUst got new computer Primary drive C: WinXP; my old drive was installed its the E drive and it still has Win 98 on it..
Any thoughts?. Thanks so much....Snook

 

Dat files can be anything, its just a generically used filename for data, HOWEVER from my knowledge of yahoo opening them won't be as simple as just opening them, they are encrypted in a manner using the username and password as a seed for the encryption algorith meaning you can open them only from yahoo whilst logged in.

you could try a program like this http://www.gold-software.com/SuperYahooMessengerArchiveDecoder-review20056.htm but I guess the cost is dependant on how important the saved messages are. Perhaps in future you should manually save the conversations that are important to you.

 

TY TY TY Matt. the program you suggested worked perfectly......it was a free download....didnt cost a thing...Sure appreciate your help. Snooky

 

No problem, glad to have helped.