Getting an "Unexpected end of file" or "There was a problem while reading the contents" error when trying to expand a .zip archive under Windows, Linux or even with an utility like The Unarchiver under Mac OS X? I was stumped to discover recently that, sometimes, Apple's Archive Utility app that is bundled with OSX is the only ZIP utility that can successfully expand those .zip files by ignoring invalid ZIP...

Here's how to make a bootable USB stick from a Mac OS X install DVD in OSX. You can also use this method to clone a small hard drive or any volume you want, given that it fits on the size of your USB drive.  If the source volume that you want to clone already contains a System Folder that's appropriate for your Mac, then the resulting USB stick shall be used to boot your Mac by inserting it in an USB port and rebooting while...

So you got a Mac OS X installer disk image (.iso, .toast, .cdr, .dmg) and would like to boot your PowerPC (G3, G4, G5) from it in order to install OSX, but unfortunately, the DVD drive on your old Mac is broken, missing or you're simply out of DVD discs? You instead went ahead and proceeded to boot your PowerPC Mac from an USB stick but it failed because the old Mac's USB ports are broken or the Open Firmware command fails for some...

In 1985, only a year after the first Macintosh came out, HFS (later referred to as "Mac OS Standard") was introduced and replaced MFS.  HFS required Macintosh System Software 2.1 and was welcome to support the HD20, Apple's first 20 megabytes hard drive that had just came out for the Mac 512K.  Can you imagine storing 50 floppy disks (400KB each back then) into a single device? Back in the day, this was huge! Now, we...

What is a .toast file? A .toast file is a disk image of a media (CD, DVD, USB stick, hard drive, etc...) created by an application named Toast.  Note that a .toast disk image is almost exactly the same as an ISO disk image and in essence, one could absolutely rename any .toast file to .iso and use/mount it as such.  Therefore, please see this page instead: What is a .iso file (disk image) and how to use it?

This tutorial only applies to old Macs that have a regular 1.4MB floppy disk drive, NOT a 800KB or 400KB floppy drive.  800KB/400KB floppy drives were uniquely manufactured by Apple and cannot be emulated using a generic PC floppy drive at all, because they have special firmware in their boards that can pack more DATA per track than regular PC drives could, at the time.  So to make 800KB/400KB floppies, you absolutely need a beige Mac...

How to manually install Classic Environment using a Mac OS 9.2.2 System Folder I suggest that you grab the first download "Generic Classic Environment for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger" here because it fits most needs, but feel free to try another Mac OS 9.2.2 System Folder if you want.  Download it on your Mac OS X 10.4 (or earlier) computer and expand the .sit archive.  Then drag the resulting System Folder to the Mac's hard...

[WIP, coming soon] Hi.  Altough this guide has nothing to do with retro Mac technology per se, it could still prove to be useful to you, even if you are not using a Mac.  DATA recovery applies to everyone and it has nothing to do with what brand of computer you use, what type of storage media you use or even how old the storage media is.  DATA recovery is just DATA recovery, regardless of the computer. Basic technical...

If you downloaded anything from this website and it doesn't work on your Mac and you want help, then you have to post in the chat all the following details.  Otherwise, nobody will even try to help you. 1) You have read and you understand the terms that you agreed to when you registered your MR account. Here they are again: "By registering, you understand that this is a retro-computing archive site for OLDER Macs. Almost nothing...

Under Mac OS 9 and earlier, all the way back to the first Mac OS versions in the 1980's, you could display a custom boot picture in the background while Mac OS was loading. To do this, you do NOT need to alter/edit any system files at all.  All you need to do is to save a copy of your desired startup picture into a specific format and place it in your System Folder. Note: System 6 and earlier only supports black & white...

Back in the early 90's, there was no such thing as 1080p let alone 4K! But playing back small color video on a 25mhz Mac was possible thanks to QuickTime.  It supported only a handful of formats, but here I'll explain how to get any video from today playing back on a 1990's Mac. First, I need some video conversion utility such as XMedia Recode. Then, I configure a conversion queue in XMedia Recode with very specific...

OK, so you got yourself FloppyEmu or a similar disk emulator for your old Mac and it works great, except not with all the files.  Why? Because FloppyEmu and such disk emulators are... disk emulators.  They expect you to feed them a disk image, not just random loose files. So just how can you wrap loose Mac files inside a disk image for use with FloppyEmu? Here's a full tutorial: 1) Grab a copy of this Disk image wrap tutorial...

What is a .dsk file? A .dsk file is a DiskDup image, an exact copy (sector by sector) of a floppy disk. DSK images were a popular format for cloning or duplicating 1980's and 1990's Macintosh floppy disks.   How to use or extract DSK images contents? DSK images are mountable and writeable/clonable onto real floppy disks.  Tough, remember that if you want to write an old Mac DSK file onto a real floppy disk using a...

When you submit the registration form, your account is immediately created and an email is instantaneously sent to your inbox.  You have to click the activation link inside that email in order to be able to sign in on MR and/or to use the lost password retrieval form.  There is no delay: the email is sent immediately when you submit the registration form.  If you attempt to use any of those features before having clicked the...

(the [messy] WIP guide) Hi enthousiasts or nostalgics from the not too far future! Ready to undust some of the 80's, 90's or early 2000's Macintosh Software treasures and feel what it was like in those earlier computer days but you're afraid it will be too difficult or obscure to do that by yourself? Fear no more, here's a small guide that will get you started!   Step 1: Real hardware... or emulation? First of...

DMG files are disk images that are compressed using Apple's proprietary format and Mac OS X default disk image format.  The fact that the DMG disk images are compressed poses a compatibility problem to most Windows users and earlier Mac OS versions, e.g. Mac OS 9.  The ISO (a.k.a. CDR under Mac OS X) disk image format is universally supported, therefore it's a much better choice for storing files or making a disk image...

You're the proud owner of a retro PPC Mac model and you'd like to initialize/reset it to factory defaults but you lost the original install/restore disks? MR to the rescue! Follow this universal method that fits any PowerPC Mac model.   1) Identify what PowerPC Mac model you got. 1a) If it still can boot into classic Mac OS (8 or 9) then navigate to the Mac's hard drive, then "Applications" folder, then launch...

What is a .rar file? A .rar file is a RAR archive, much like a ZIP file, except it's a proprietary format mostly used under the Windows environment.   How to use or extract .rar archives contents? To extract or expand a .rar archive, you simply open it with your favorite decompression tool, as it is widely supported.   Under Classic Mac OS (before Mac OS X) Mac OS 8.1 to Mac OS 9.2.2: Stuffit Expander 6.0 or...

What is a .dmg file? A .dmg file is a disk image, meaning it's an exact copy (raw block DATA) of a disk (CD, DVD, USB stick, etc...) or even just a folder wrapped in a disk image. DMG images have been the default file format for distributing software on the internet for Mac OS X users since the year 2000.  DMG images are safe to store on any partition type, such as Windows (NTFS) and are safe to distribute over FTP, send by email,...

What is a .iso file? A .iso file is a disk image, meaning it's an exact copy (sector by sector) of a disk, e.g.: CD, DVD, USB stick, hard drive, etc... ISO images have been the most used file format for cloning or duplicating disks for a very long time, namely since the late 1980's along with the first consumer CD-ROM products.    How to use or extract ISO images contents? ISO images are mountable and...