Has anyone gotten WriteNow 3 or 4 to work in SheepShaver? I'm running 9.0.4 and both crash immediately when trying to read files I recovered from a zip drive. Both produce the following error output:
This doesn't happen if you save a file and open it with WriteNow inside the emulation. The potentially only happens with files that aren't immediately identifiable via their file type, since the backup didn't encode that. However, WriteNow4 seems to recognize WriteNow3 files for a moment before the crash, because it says it's converting the file.
You do not mention your host system, I suppose it is OSX/macOS, and you do not mention which SheepShaver version/build you use.
1. Did you make sure to enable "Ignore Illegal Memory Accesses" in SheepShaver preferences > Miscellaneous tab?
2. Are you sure the old files are complete and intact, including their resource forks? If the files have been saved on a non-Mac files system and/or were compressed by a zip utility that does not include the classic Mac file properties, they may be damaged beyond repair.
3. If they were compressed with a Mac zip utility while residing on a Mac file system, which zip utility on which MacOS/MacOSX/OSX/macOS version?
Sorry, I completely forgot to include those details. I'm on Windows 10, but have Mac Drive to read HFS disks. I'm using the 01-03-2015 version.
To answer your questions:
1. Yes, I have, no change.
2. They were never saved or compressed in a non-Mac system. These backups are intact from 1997.
3. I do not believe they were compressed; when I say "zip drive", I mean an Iomega Zip Drive. The files do seem to be intact, because if you open them in a NotePad++ you can actually read the original text of the file interspersed with the binary information (presumably about font, document type, etc.)
EDIT: After some additional searching I just had the idea to try opening the files in LibreOffice, which seems to do a fairly good job at preserving the original formats. I would still like to see what they look like in the original program if possible, tho.
meyori wrote:I'm on Windows 10, but have Mac Drive to read HFS disks. I'm using the 01-03-2015 version.
[...]
They were never saved or compressed in a non-Mac system. These backups are intact from 1997
[...]
I mean an Iomega Zip Drive.
So you use Mac Drive to read the files on the Zip drive. How do you transfer those files from the Zip drive into OS9 in SheepShaver?
The files do seem to be intact, because if you open them in a NotePad++ you can actually read the original text of the file interspersed with the binary information (presumably about font, document type, etc.)
NotePad++ is a Windows application. It will read only the data fork of a classic Mac file. The resource fork could still be lost.
In your first post you wrote:
The potentially only happens with files that aren't immediately identifiable via their file type, since the backup didn't encode that.
How come? A backup made with a Mac from a Mac on a HFS (or HFS+) volume should have kept type and creator codes intact. They should be there with the files on the Zip drive. Those metadata (and probably the resource forks) may have been lost by the way the files were moved from the Zip drive into SheepShaver.
Last edited by Ronald P. Regensburg on Sat May 04, 2019 6:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason:
I am mainly a Mac user and I do not have much experience with Windows. I think someone with experience with SheepShaver in Windows can better instruct you how to get files from the backup on your Iomega Zip drive into SheepShaver with their specific Mac file properties intact.
Perhaps HFV explorer can read your zip drive directly? Does it show up as a drive in Windows?
If HFV explorer can read the drive, you can copy the files directly to a disk readable by SheepShaver.
Or perhaps Mac drive can also open a SheepShaver disk image?