Problem copying VTS_01_0.BUP from DVD-recorder-made DVD

I copied a long-out-of-print VHS to a DVD on my Panasonic DMR-ES10.
It plays just fine on both DVD player and computer.
But when I went to make a dup using Nero Express 6, it croaks complaining it
can't read the disc (after a while). I've made many copies of discs created
in this way, so it's not a generic problem.

So I decide to try copying as data files to the computer and then figure out
how to create a DVD. Everything goes well except for one file, VTS_01_0.BUP
which gives an error "Cannot copy VTS_01_0: Cannot read fromt he source file
or disk".

OK, I figure that if the disc can PLAY without a readable .BUP file, let's
try creating it without one. But Nero croaks, complains that it needs the
..BUP (I forget the exact error message).

Any clues how to proceed? My SIMA box got fried (near miss lightning
strike!), so re-doing the VHS>DVD is not a near term option.

Side question: When I do a dos dir of the disc, or look at it in windows,
there seem to be 3 copies of each .VOB file, for a total of about 12 GB.
This is clearly not physically possible, so what's going on? Any references
to how video DVD is put together would be appreciated.

Here's the disc structure:

Two top-level directories:

VIDEO_RM which has two empty files,

VIDEO_RM.BUP
VIDEO_RM.IFO

VIDEO_TS -- here's a dos dir of this:


Directory of D:\VIDEO_TS

06/18/2005 05:57 AM <DIR> .
06/18/2005 05:57 AM <DIR> ..
06/18/2005 05:57 AM 14,336 VIDEO_TS.IFO
06/18/2005 05:57 AM 14,336 VIDEO_TS.BUP
06/18/2005 05:57 AM 55,296 VIDEO_TS.VOB
06/18/2005 05:57 AM 69,632 VTS_01_0.IFO
06/18/2005 05:57 AM 69,632 VTS_01_0.BUP
06/18/2005 05:57 AM 1,073,170,432 VTS_01_1.VOB
06/18/2005 05:57 AM 1,073,170,432 VTS_02_1.VOB
06/18/2005 05:57 AM 1,073,170,432 VTS_03_1.VOB
06/18/2005 05:57 AM 1,073,170,432 VTS_01_2.VOB
06/18/2005 05:57 AM 1,073,170,432 VTS_02_2.VOB
06/18/2005 05:57 AM 1,073,170,432 VTS_03_2.VOB
06/18/2005 05:57 AM 1,073,170,432 VTS_01_3.VOB
06/18/2005 05:57 AM 1,073,170,432 VTS_02_3.VOB
06/18/2005 05:57 AM 1,073,170,432 VTS_03_3.VOB
06/18/2005 05:57 AM 946,825,216 VTS_01_4.VOB
06/18/2005 05:57 AM 946,825,216 VTS_02_4.VOB
06/18/2005 05:57 AM 946,825,216 VTS_03_4.VOB
17 File(s) 12,499,232,768 bytes
2 Dir(s) 0 bytes free

Another solution is to use Nero Vision Express to import
just the VOB files and create a new DVD image (you can
also create a menu while you are there). That will build
a whole new DVD file structure on the hard drive. Then
you can burn a new DVD from those files.

I would try a disk copy using blindwrite

Thanks Bill, nick and Steve for the excellent suggestions.
I'll start outwith Bill's, since it requires no other software and makes
sense as far as I understand it.

While I'm here,
1) any good tutorials or other on-line sources for the nitty gritty about
DVD structure, authoring, etc?
2) any good freeware DVD authoring software?

and a long shot

3) I remember reading about a program that could do simple edits on
compressed DVD video directly, without first decompressing, then editing,
then re-compressing the whole project. This was intended mainly for stuff
like editing out the ads from a recorded TV program, for instance. It must
do something to stitch things together at the splices, but for most of the
file just reproduces the original. I tried to find it but ran into a dead
end. Does this ring a bell, and is anything like that available? Does it
even make sense.

That worked, Thanks Bill.
I copied the .IFO file to the desktop, renamed it <>.BUP, then copied back
to the directory I had the other files in. Then used Nero Express's "Burn
DVD Video Files" option, copied the appropriate files to the VIDEO_TS
directory. Not an exact duplicate of the original, but it seems to work
fine, both playing on computer and on a DVD player