Hi Joe,
Thanks for posting.
We strongly recommend that you stop recording when the battery symbol begins to flash.
The .dat file is a data file, used by the camcorder. It doesn't contain your movies. You'll want to check for the ".mov" movie files produced by your camera.
If you don't see any such files, it's possible that the files are either corrupt or failed to record when the battery was exhausted.
First, please take no more pictures or movies, using this card. When pictures are deleted their data remains on the memory card. When a new picture or movie is recorded, it may overwrite the image/movie data, making the retrieval of your movies very difficult.
Movies that have become corrupt, may sometimes be recovered through the use of data recovery software for memory cards.
Canon does not offer any such software to recover images deleted from memory cards. However, there are many companies who specialize in this process. We suggest searching the Internet for digital image recovery services to locate such a company.
You may also want to check with the manufacturer of your memory card to see if they have this software available. When searching you want to make sure that you specify that you need data recovery for memory cards as there is also software for recovery from computer hard drives and this is different software. It's a good idea to seek out and scrutinize user and professional reviews for the software you're considering.
If you're considering commercially available software, I recommend "trying before you buy", if the option is available. This will help you determine if the software is a good fit for your needs and workflow.
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