need to open some illustrator 3 files from 96

[camomac]

i have this really cool CD that i need to extract the images off of it. OS X won't even read the disk, it gives me the error -"The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer."

so i used Data Rescue II to extract the image folders off the disk, but illustrator CS2 wont read them... seems everything is messed up.

HOW do i get these images off the disk.. i would even consider paying to have these extracted to a readable format for CS2.

maybe somebody that has an old machine with illustrator 3 running an old OS?

please help.

 

[zero2dash]

so i used Data Rescue II to extract the image folders off the disk, but illustrator CS2 wont read them... seems everything is messed up.

Is there any error message?

I have access to an old PowerMac G3 running OS8 with Illustrator 7, that might work. I think I also have an old copy of Illustrator 7 or 8 lying around the house for Windows that I could install.

 

[MacBoobsPro]

Windows XP is old enough Maybe too old.

I use Freehand MX to open old Illustrator files. Usually works fine.

 

[eb6]

Preview can open a lot of file types. Try opening in there and saving as a pdf or something.

 

[camomac]

*CORRECTION*
they are illustrator 5.5 files...

Is there any error message?

I have access to an old PowerMac G3 running OS8 with Illustrator 7, that might work. I think I also have an old copy of Illustrator 7 or 8 lying around the house for Windows that I could install.

would a DP2.0 G5 have a problem opening an older OS like OS 8, or even 7. (I am running Tiger 10.4.8, and DO have classic installed.)??

check out the preview of the files...

 

[Nermal]

would a DP2.0 G5 have a problem opening an older OS like OS 8, or even 7. (I am running Tiger 10.4.8, and DO have classic installed.)??

The oldest OS you can run directly is X (and Classic). You could run earlier ones with emulators such as Basilisk (7.5 - 8.1) or SheepShaver (8.5 - 9.0). Unfortunately, Basilisk requires a ROM from a real 68K Mac.

 

[irishkale]

I would try several things:

1) rename the file from its current filename of "Illustrator5-00002.5" to a new name with the ".ai" extension. This forces illustrator to try to open it as a native ai file. Also try the ".eps" extension.

2) if this fails, rename the file to a ".ps" extension, then try opening the file either by dragging and dropping on the illustrator CS2 icon or using the open command from the illustrator application itself.

3) failing this, try dropping the file that you've renamed with a ".ps" extension onto Acrobat distiller. It might distill to a PDF file which is openable in illustrator.

4) try placing the file with the renamed ".ai" or ".eps" extension in Indesign CS2. If that works, export as a PDF from Indesign CS2, then open the resulting PDF back in Illustrator.

5) try opening the file with the renamed ".ai" or ".eps" extension in photoshop. It'll rasterize it, but if it works, you'll at least get the image back.

If all this fails, it could be that the file itself is corrupted. The fact that the file size is exactly 100MB seems fishy, like the recovery program you used sliced up the readable data from the CD into 100MB chunks.

Good Luck!

 

[camomac]

thank you for all your help. it seems that the restored files were corrupt.
i bought a cheap 8600 with OS 8.6, and it read the original CD right away.
now i just have to transfer them to the G5...

 

[IJ Reilly]

FWIW, Illustrator 5.5 and 7.0 work in the Classic environment.

A related trick: Preview can open .ps files and save them out as PDF files, so you can easily manufacture a PDF file from a Classic application even without Acrobat Distiller by saving it through the Print dialog as a .ps file.

 

[JasonElise1983]

A related trick: Preview can open .ps files and save them out as PDF files, so you can easily manufacture a PDF file from a Classic application even without Acrobat Distiller by saving it through the Print dialog as a .ps file.

that does work, but the way OS X and Preview make PDFS is crap. I got so much of this working for a magazine. Even a CMYK .ps comes out broken up all wierd, and half of it rasterized. It's fine for some things, just not practical for print work. I could alway run preflight and se the "creator" of the file was some Mac OS X blah blah blah....

-JE

 

[IJ Reilly]

that does work, but the way OS X and Preview make PDFS is crap. I got so much of this working for a magazine. Even a CMYK .ps comes out broken up all wierd, and half of it rasterized. It's fine for some things, just not practical for print work. I could alway run preflight and se the "creator" of the file was some Mac OS X blah blah blah....

-JE

Yes, it does work. I've been able to use this trick to rescue many old documents made in obsolete Classic applications. It sure beats the hell out of losing them. I believe Apple used the limited implementation of PDF which is in the public domain, otherwise they would have to pay royalties to Adobe.