I was fooling around tonight with some of the file permissions. If you right click the file and go to properties I saw that in one of my computers the file attributes were set to 'read only' and 'hidden'. All of the computers were set to 'read only' but only my WinXP PRO copied them as 'hidden'. The WinXP Pro desktop had them as hidden, but I could see them, but my laptop which has the same WinXP PRO installed from the same disk, I have a volume license disk wouldn't show them even as greyed out. So all I did to correct the problem was to open the file folder which appeared empty and right click inside the folder, a box popped up and I went to properties and unchecked the hidden box. I then clicked on 'apply' and another box popped up that ask me if I wanted this to apply to all files and sub-folders of the current folder. I checked that box and the files appeared. I was then able to play the videos.
What a stroke of luck and since I've been fooling around with computers since 1989, a real DOS guy, I'm ashamed I didn't think of it sooner. Usually the simplest stuff is the hardest to solve. We all want to think of drivers and hardware and all the complicated issues, but sometimes the simplest stuff is the answer.
I recently copied some video files from a flash drive to my laptop computer running WinXP Pro. I copied the entire folder from the flash drive. All that showed up was the folder for Videolan video player which I could install but the other files weren't there. The folder properties said there were more files and megabytes than in the Videolan folder. In fact the folder properties showed about the same size as on the flash drive. How do I fix this. I, also, tried the following: I copied the data from the flash drive to a Win 7 desktop and, also from a WinXP PRO desktop computer. The files showed up in those computers ok and the video ran. I, then, copied the files from the WinXP Pro desktop to the laptop and the laptop showed the folder empty the same as before except for the video player folder.
Any takers on this one?

Chowhound
Comic Vine
GameFAQs
GameSpot
Giant Bomb
TechRepublic