Ever encountered Invalid MS-DOS Function error message while copying VCD, DVD, CD-i or what ever optical media in Windows XP before?

Well, first thing you have to check is the physical surface of the disc. Make sure no visible scratches or dust/fungi on the disc surface.

However, after you cleaned the disc, still the same error occurs. Wonder why?

There are two factors that most likely to contribute to this problem

1) Your optical drive cannot properly read the media. Media incompatibility is quite common among newer generation of optical drives.

2) Multi-track disc. Many operating systems have problem reading multi-track disc because the optical disc drivers can only read standard ISO9660 tracks.

BTW the error Invalid MS-DOS Function has nothing to do with the MS-DOS feature of Windows NT/XP/2000 etc because these OSes do not have ANY MS-DOS drivers at all.

Invalid MS-DOS Function is not really the OS fault. It is because the OS optical drives driver were meant to read ISO9660 tracks, not multi-track discs.

So, how do I copy files when I encounter this?

Two things you can do, get a burner application that can rip disc contents by track.
Among the burner applications that do not support multi-track disc reading are burnatonce, cdrecord (any port) and most Linux-based burner applications.

Another thing, is to read the disc on another optical disc drive.

Okay, tried the disc on a different optical drive, still failed to copy the file.

What to do next, get a burner like Nero Burning ROM or some other commercial burner application. These burners can read/create/rip multi-track discs.

What to do next? Determine tracks using the burner, and try to guess the file type of each track of the disc. Well, the burner should be able to tell you this.

If the track is detected as Data Mode 1 or Data Mode 2, it is probably a single track containing single file. If you can play the disk on media player, determine what type of media that the player plays.

Two good media player that can tell you more on the media you are playing is VLC and Windows Media Player 8/9/10/11 (suprised huh?).

With Nero Burning ROM, choose to view and save the track that is detected as Data Mode 1 or Data Mode 2. If the track is an ISO9660, do not rip this track because it mostly contains the main application e.g. VCD-i or VCD application that comes with the disc.

After ripping the track, rename the filename with the appropriate extension (according to the media type given in your media player) to make the file playable with your media player.

More solutions later.