Files gone mental, damn Unix files

[craigpdavies]

I have recently upgraded my operating system on my Mac from os9 to osX while doing so I backed a lot of my work onto a friend’s laptop, which converted them to Unix Executable Files. How can I convert these files so I can make them work on my Mac again, arrgh please someone help its happened to all my portfolio work.

[jimking]

What kind of mac? When you backed up the files on your friends computer did the file extentions look ok or was it when you moved them to your updated mac?

[craigpdavies]

Thanks for replying jinx.

It is a 1999 G4. The files if I remember correctly changed when I put them on my friends pc, the file size has stayed the same, I just cant open them.
Below is the message I get when I try to open a Unix File

There is no default application specified to open the document “CENTER upgrade 4 copy”

[jimking]

Give an example of the file name now and what it used to be. Also, what kind of files? Quark, Photoshop, eps etc...

[jimking]

Also, how high is that upgrade on the old g4? What os exactly.

[doubting_thomas]

Sorry to butt in jimking...
When the files are transfered back from the PC can you use Apple File Protocol
(AFP)? It may require a Cmmd + K to mount the pc's hard drive in order to get
that option, and if I recall you'd need to log into it via IP address. OS X by default
uses a different language, and that will wreck your OS 9 resource forks.
Might not be this at all though.

[jimking]

Something got retranslated. You could be right DT.

[mojoprime]

you moved them to a friend's pc? and they converted right, but when you moved them to your new OS X machine, they turned into unix files?

do you remember what types of files they are? did you try the old trick of just adding the right extension to file name? like, for an illustrator file, add .ai to the end? that probably won't work but it's worth asking.

i also found this:

http://forums.macosxhints.com/archive/index.php/t-53534.html

a more indepth approach would have you resetting launch services in os x. launch services basically tells the OS which application to launch when you double-click the icon of a certain file.

http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/resetlaunchservices.html

you can use a utility like onyx or cocktail to do it for you, also.

[MD]

did these files have extensions on the end of them when you put them on the PC?

Here is a few things to try
You may be able to tack the three letter extension on the end and the computer would recognize it correctly.

What if you hold down the control key and click on the file and choose open with?

Get Info (Command I) and change the open with box.

[mojoprime]

MD, i totally forgot about that "open with..." but yeah, that might work as well, and be a hell of a lot easier than what i was talking about.

[jimking]

I think I've seen this before with the unix files. DT got me thinking about this.

[MD]

Sometimes the simplest methods are the best mojo. ;)

That being said tacking the extension on the end of the file should work and probably is the best method. I had the same issue when a friend of mine upgraded from OS 9 to OS X last year. All of her excel files showed up as unix executables. I think I used a mixture of changing the extension and the Get info Change all. The only drawback of the change all is the icon remains the same (gray box) but will launch in the proper application.

[hewligan]

On pre OS X Macs, all files were actually made up of two different parts - called a resource fork and a data fork. The data fork had all the contents of the file, while the resource fork had stuff like the file's icon and the program to open it with. Mac OS X supports this, but doesn't normally create data forks, it just stores all the information in a single file (but it will read a file with a resource fork just fine if you copy them across from a classic Mac.)

Unfortunately, other operating systems never used a resource fork. So, if you copy a Mac classic file to a Linux or Windows box, it just copies the data fork, and the resource fork is lost.

That's not a huge problem as long as you know what type of file it was, since adding a file extension or using "open with" will still work just fine.

That is, except for fonts. For some bizarre reason, fonts stored all the outline information in the resource fork, so if you copied fonts onto another OS, you're pancaked with them. But everything else should work just fine.

[mojoprime]

hee hee. i agree.

we had the same problem on my wife's laptop for awhile, and it finally worked itself all out. ah, the joys of OS 9. the last time i booted up classic and watched conflict catcher load (oh yes, remember that?), and i really finally realized that OS 9 is dead.

[MD]

and i really finally realized that OS 9 is dead.

I was just going through my hard drive tossing stuff away to clear some HD space when i noticed the OS 9 folder. I couldn't remember the last time I had to boot into it, I was going to trash it but I realized it was only a couple hundred megs. The episode of 24 that I torrented last night was larger. I left it there for sentimental reasons :D

[mojoprime]

yeah, i think i have a copy of quark 4.11 on my machine at home, "just in case." i haven't used it in years, but it's like throwing out your first baseball glove or your old rapidograph pens; just doesn't seem right getting rid of the thing that got you where you are, no matter how out of date it is. :)

[Silence04]

yeah, i realized os9 was dead when i booted up an old mac and couldn't function without a dock...

[MD]

But didn't you have all the application shortcuts in the apple menu? ;)

[hewligan]

I used to keep my app shortcuts in a tabbed folder at the bottom of the screen. Actually, I still miss that - I liked it much better than the dock.

I don't miss all the crashing, though.

[MD]

I am a really laid back guy but one thing that really irritates the hell out of me is a computer crash. OS X was a godsend! When I started this job we were running OS 8.6 and had a couple customers who insisted on using Pagemaker. Some days I just wanted to shoot myself - especially when Pagemaker decided to lock up the system just opening a document up.

[hewligan]

Oh, that brings back horrible memories. I spent 3 years working for a magazine produced in pagemaker 6 on Mac OS 8.6. Throw the truly awful Illustrator 9 into the mix, and crashes were an almost daily occurence.

(Pagemaker 6.5 had been out for years before I even started there, but for some reason only 6 would work with our aged RIP...)