There's no need to create a datfile when you can simply import the MAME binary into Clrmamepro.
I will assume here your set is tzip/split because of it's size and at what version you're coming from.
So your options are importing MAME 0.172 into CMP and preform a scan/fix on your set if you want to stay at 0.172. Anything you miss will show up in the statistics window.
If you want to upgrade to the latest release then simply import the latest release into Clrmamepro.