Old files not recognized by OS9 in Sheepshaver

[MisterBloodhound]

I've set up OS9 in SheepShaver and it's working well, but I have old files from my OS9 days that have been stored uncompressed on modern Mac OSX hard drives for years. When I copy them into my SheepShaver OS9 virtual disk, the OS and apps do not recognize what they are. They just appear as generic Documents and my programs can't open them. The one exception has been old image files with a .tiff extension, which I can open in PictureViewer.

(The specific files I need to access are Adobe PageMaker 6.5 documents, which is why I am trying to open them under emulation in OS9.)

I have copied the files to the virtual disk where OS9 is running so they are not located on the Unix shared drive. I have also tried rebuilding the desktop which did not help.

How do I get old files from OS9->OSX back to working in OS9 again? Do I need to edit the type and creator codes for these old files within SheepShaver?

[emendelson]

Try one of the filetype utilities on Macintosh Garden. They have names like FileType and FileTyper. You'll need to know the creator type and file type for PageMaker 6.5 files, but that should be easy to find.

Someone else may have a better answer, but this should work.

[GuiBer]

Adobe PageMaker 6.5 documents should have Type = ALB6 and Creator = AD65; the extension is PM6.
Infos from Type/Creator DB 2003.8 app.

[GuiBer]

You can give a look here too for an app to change Creator and Type :
https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/creator-changer
Very useful

[MisterBloodhound]

Thank you for the help!

For the benefit of future generations, the type/creator codes for Adobe PageMaker 6.5 documents that worked correctly in Mac OS9 turned out to be:

Creator: AD65
Type: AB65

The above may look like a typo (AD? AB?) but they are correct. With those codes set, my documents worked fine in SheepShaver.

Many thanks to everyone who answered my questions on this project!

[joevt]

Question is, how did your old files loose their file type/creator codes?

Files stored uncompressed on modern Mac OS X should still contain their Finder Info (file creator and type, Finder flags/attributes, etc.) and resource forks.
Use the GetFileInfo command to check.

Code: Select all

% GetFileInfo /Volumes/Classic/System\ Folder/Mac\ OS\ ROM 
file: "/Volumes/Classic/System Folder/Mac OS ROM"
type: "tbxi"
creator: "chrp"
attributes: avBStclInmedz
created: 04/03/2003 12:00:00
modified: 04/03/2003 12:00:00

Use the SetFile command to change creator and type.

What method did you use to copy the files to your SheepShaver OS 9 virtual disk? A Finder copy in modern Mac OS X should preserve Finder Info and resource forks for HFS, HFS+, and APFS disks.