Ripping home video DVD

I'm just starting digitial home movies and I'm having a heck of a time getting the vid from my SONY DCR DVD92 to the computer hard drive. I can't cut/copy and paste (or drag) a large movie file from the RW mini-disc to the HD for editing. At about 12% I get the message of an I/O error. I Googled the error message and took the suggested steps without better results. The suggested fixes were (#1)change the IDE properties of the device manager (transfer mode box to PIO only) and (following failure of #1) clean boot.

Because I have two DVD burners I just basically guessed which settings to fiddle with, as there are 3 primary IDE channels, 3 secondary and 3 standard dual channel PCI IDE controllers (whatever those are). I think I tried the first two of primary IDE channels. But I'd be willing to try again, with some direction.

I also tried to rip the DVD with Nero, but got "NeroRecode2 encountered a problem and can't continue." I don't think Nero recognizes the vob files of my camera. Although I think it ripped the small vob files??? The one I can't work with is like 1 million kb

My questions: why can't I cut and paste the file from the dvd to a hard drive folder like the camera directions suggest? Why can't nero handle this? What software would solve my problem? Can you suggest another forum or website to help me.

I'm guessing it might be a RAM problem. But I'm no computer expert and I know even less above dvds and home video.

Background: Windows XP, Camera: SONY DCR DVD92, Nero 6.6.1.15, ATI Radeon 200 Pentium(R) D cpu 2.80Ghz
System memory 445mb cpu 2800 mhz bus 200mhz
dvd burner drive: TSST Corp SHS182D

Disc: TDK DVD-RW 2x, 8 cm I think.

Thanks for the reply, meecrob. This is the kind of advice I was hoping for. I prefer freeware but this is an important task, so paying $30-$70 for something that will accomplish the job but easy to use will not be a deterent. I hoping for more suggestions.
It also just occurred to me to visit and photo or electronics store and find someone that can identify with my problem. Duh! (slaps forehead)
Further, I'm wondering if a DVD-R would present less of a problem than a DVD-RW.

Tried that very early (see my initial post). Worked on all except the very largest file (926,000kb).

Reading this board I see there are all sorts of difficulties xfering DV to a computer and burning a DVD.