What is a .sit file? A .sit file is a Stuffit archive, much like ZIP files today, except that .sit is a proprietary archive format from the 90's which allowed Mac users to confidently "stuff" their files, applications and documents into a flat file that could then be copied to a non-Mac hard drive partition, namely a DOS (FAT32) or Windows (NTFS) partition, without any risk of DATA corruption.  You see, throughout the...

When you come across split ZIP files that look like sequential part numbers, before extracting files out of the archive, you first need to join the split files together into a single, complete, ZIP file.  A split ZIP file could look like this, for instance: 691-5088-A.zip_.001 691-5088-A.zip_.002 691-5088-A.zip_.003 691-5088-A.zip_.004   Under Windows   Open a command prompt and navigate to the folder containing...

This article lays out the steps in order to "burn" (or clone, or copy) a disk image (such as an ISO boot/install CD) onto an USB stick using only a vanilla Mac OS X environment that any Mac user already has available.  You do not need any additional or third party software since Mac OS X is Linux based and comes with "dd" which is all it takes to accomplish this.  

PowerPC Macs such as G3's and G4's can boot off of USB sticks, even if this functionality has been buried so deep in technical details that almost nobody knew about it until nobody used G3's anymore.  If you're a collector or hobbyist and got a G3 or G4 and would like to install Mac OS 8, 9 or Mac OS X on it but that the CD/DVD drive is broken, here's a complete guide that will prove be useful to you.  It will let...

Old Mac files (Mac OS 9 and earlier) need to be encapsulated properly before being moved/copied to a non-HFS partition/disk such as on a Windows PC or a web server or they will get corrupted, effectively losing their resource fork, which will render them useless on your Mac OS 9 or earlier environment. The best way to protect old Mac files before moving/copying them out of your OSX environment is to first copy them onto a HFS+ disk image, which...

To boot a PowerMac (or an iMac, iBook, eMac, etc...) from an USB stick or drive, if you have a G5 or late G4 model, first refer to the boot from CD guide and if it does not work, then follow these instructions: 1. Plug your USB stick or drive in an USB port 2. Power the computer on (or restart it if it's already running) and immediately... 3. ...hold down those 4 keys together: [ CMD + OPT/ALT + O + F ] 4. At the Open Firmware...

This tutorial is meant for people who did not use older Macs back in the 90's who are struggling to open (or "load") old Mac files into their emulator (or even a real Mac, doesn't matter) and it's split in paragraphs that depict a specific file type/extension, so please skip to the paragraph that talks about the kind of file you're trying to open to discover how to do it.   .sit Stuffit archives Stuffit...

Preparing files or discs are critical to the preservation of software here on the Macintosh Repository's archive and elsewhere for that matter. This article, although not exhaustive, should provide members with the knowledge necessary to gain a foothold of the terminology, a brief background and some possible steps to prepare loose files and physical discs for upload. EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: DO NOT ZIP AND/OR DO NOT MOVE AN...

One of the problems retro Mac enthousiasts face nowadays is figuring out how to mount old/random disk images in order to access the game or app in it. First of all, you have to know that there were at least a dozen disk image formats back then (altough only a handful of them were widely used) and fortunately for you, there is a very nice disk image mounting tool for classic Mac called Virtual DVD-ROM/CD Utility that mounts just about all of them...

Originally posted on resexcellence.com. The original article can be found here: https://web.archive.org/web/19990220021352/http://www.resexcellence.com:80/resedit.shtml     ResEdit Precautions Always work on a copy If you do nothing else, at least do this. Working on a copy ensures that no matter how bad you screw up, you have something to fall back on. Of course if you are hacking software you can reinstall it if...

This article originally appeared on resexcellence.com Modify Apple's DVD Player to run with Macsbug After touting the advantages of Macsbug, it appears that Apple's DVD Player 2.0 won't launch if the debugger is installed. This simple modification to the player application allows the two to exist harmoniously. We will use ResEdit to modify the data fork of the application, so you will need to download and...

This article was hosted on the excellent ResExcellence site. The text below is a verbatim copy of the same hosted on the wayback machine. https://web.archive.org/web/20040404121044/http://www.resexcellence.com/hack_html_99/12-21-98.shtml Several readers emailed to point out an excellenct article in c't Magazine that showed how to use ResEdit on Apple CD/DVD drivers to make them recognize any CD ROM drives - not just...

So, you'd like to customize your Mac OS 7, 8 or 9 desktop by changing the Apple logo in the top/left corner? You know, you can customize way more than just this using one of the thousands of pre-made Kaleidoscope Schemes (look inside kaleidoscope_schemes.zip).  And of course, if you're a programmer, you could use ResEdit and fiddle with hex code and try to replace your System file's icon resource, but oh man, that's a risky...

Okay, first off, there aren't a ton of .bin/.cue files, but there are some and when you'll face them, you'll most likely won't understand how to deal with them because it's an awkward format.  Also, you have to understand that .bin/.cue files MUST work in pairs so whenever you see them, always keep them together in the same folder and do not rename them.  The .cue file is a cue sheet that explains to the disk image...

        Connecting Two Macs With a Serial Connection   Contents Introduction Pros Cons Procedure Requirements Setting Up The Connection Setting Up File Sharing Seeing The Other Mac Troubleshooting What Next? Disclaimer     Introduction One of the best things about Macs is that they all come with built in networking...

Listed below is a table of all the keyboard key combinations you can use on almost all PowerMacs (G3, G4, iMacs, iBooks, eMacs, etc...) originally listed at: http://davespicks.com/writing/programming/mackeys.html You can also download the PDF file.     Table of contents On Boot After display of Happy Mac icon As Finder starts In Finder On disk mount After startup In the sleep/restart dialog In other dialogs On...

So you've got a Mac OS install CD or you made yourself a custom boot disk and would like to boot from it but when you insert it in your Mac and power it on, it always boots from the hard drive? Then here's how to access the PPC boot selection screen...   You can boot any PowerMac from a removable media by turning it on and immediately holding down the OPTION (ALT) key down until a boot selection screen shows up (usually takes...

If you used a Mac back in the 90's, then you remember that among Mac users, nobody ever used ZIP format for compressing files.  Everybody used SIT files instead and some used HQX, BIN or CPT files, but not a single Mac user zipped their files.  The reason is simple: ZIP files are not compatible with Mac resource forks (old Mac files before Mac OS X) and zipping an old Mac file (such as a Mac OS 9 application program) would destroy...

There was a bug under Mac OS 9 (and maybe Mac OS 8 too?) that, under a special circumstance, prevented some files to be locked, unlocked or even deleted.  They would sit there in your trash forever and prevent you to empty it even when the OPTION KEY is held down.  Rebuilding the desktop does NOT resolve the issue. Trying to get file info with ResEdit results in the following error: The reason this is happening is generally...

This is another post about emulation.