I think I stumbled across a very important old file on an old mac...

[mentaluproar]

I was helping my roommate repair a vintage mac using my G4 mac running tiger as a bridge between new **** and old ****. While digging around the folders on it, I found a file I had completely forgotten about, Ingy.cdr.

Ingy was the name of a friend of mine who died years ago, but I can't think of anything of hers that I would have on that old mac. My only guess is it was some old audio recording of her playing paino what I recorded way back but that would have been done on my macbook. I have no idea what it would be doing on there.

I have no other copies of this file anywhere. I cannot mount the file as an image. I cannot burn the file as an image and read the CD. I cannot get any useful information off it by screwing around in the terminal with anything. Hex fiend does show it's not a giant blank file, there is a lead in and a lead out of zeros, then about 400-some megabytes of gibberish. I really think this might be an audio cd.

But I can't read it.

How can I read this file?

 

[bradbomb]

Question, why can't you mount the image? Does it not mount when you double click? Have you tried copying it to a hard drive and opening on a newer mac? .cdr files were usually created by Mac OS X's Disc Utility when making an image from a CD.

 

[mentaluproar]

It won’t mount the file. It says it can’t. The old Mac and the new Mac have this problem.

 

[NoBoMac]

Quick web search turns up it might be CorelDraw?

But if CD image, should open unless corrupted somehow? My guess.

 

[Ruggy]

That's a CorelDraw extension as was indicated, and macs don't open them natively.
You need an app that will handle CorelDraw files but first I suggest you copy it if you can, and then you try to open the copy.
If you can use Export then you might be able to convert it to a .pdf file in which case you will be able to read it natively.
If you have LibreOffice that will handle it and a lot of people do because it opens so many things like old .doc files.
You can convert it online with something like Cloudconvert

CloudConvert

>File converter service - more than 200 different audio, video, document, ebook, archive, image, spreadsheet and presentation formats supported.

cloudconvert.com

Another program that should handle it natively is Inkscape- but I haven't used it.

Inkscape - Draw Freely. | Inkscape

Inkscape is professional vector graphics software which runs on Linux, macOS and Windows desktop computers.

inkscape.org

 

[bradbomb]

I’m sorry, but on a mac, .cdr has historically been a CD Image created through Disk Utility (picking DVD/CD master when creating image). I personally still have many .cdr files on my Mac that I created as backups of install media (I have been using a Mac since System 7.0.4).

If the disk image doesn’t mount, it must be corrupted. Have you tried using “Verify Disk Image” inside Disi Utility to see what the error is?

 

[bogdanw]

I cannot get any useful information off it by screwing around in the terminal with anything.

What does hdiutil imageinfo /path/to/Ingy.cdr return?

 

[mentaluproar]

What does hdiutil imageinfo /path/to/Ingy.cdr return?

Class Name: CRawDiskImage
Size Information:
    Total Bytes: 447235072
    Compressed Ratio: 1
    Sector Count: 873506
    Total Non-Empty Bytes: 447235072
    Compressed Bytes: 447235072
    Total Empty Bytes: 0
Checksum Type: none
Format: UDTO
partitions:
    partition-scheme: none
    block-size: 512
    appendable: false
    partitions:
        0:
            partition-name: whole disk
            partition-start: 0
            partition-synthesized: true
            partition-length: 873506
            partition-hint: unknown partition
    burnable: false
Format Description: raw read/write
Checksum Value:
Properties:
    Encrypted: false
    Kernel Compatible: true
    Checksummed: false
    Software License Agreement: false
    Partitioned: false
    Compressed: no
Segments:
    0: /Users/seancarson/Desktop/Ingy.cdr
Backing Store Information:
    URL: file:///Users/xxxx/Desktop/Ingy.cdr
    Name: Ingy.cdr
    Class Name: CBSDBackingStore
Resize limits (per hdiutil resize -limits):
 min      cur      max
873506    873506    873506

 

[bogdanw]

Have you tried to change its extension to dmg and mount it?

 

[Fishrrman]

Did a quick search on converting .cdr to .dmg and found this:

DMGConverter for Mac - Free download and software reviews - CNET Download

Download DMGConverter latest version for Mac free. DMGConverter latest update: September 21, 2018

download.cnet.com

CDR to DMG - Convert CDR file to DMG online

We will help you convert the file CDR to DMG as soon as possible. All you need to do is use one of the software programs designed to convert CDR to DMG. Using the CDR to DMG converter is free.

converter.tips

CDR to DMG - Instructions how to convert the file CDR to DMG

If you want to convert CDR to DMG, you will find a list of programs that will help you carry out the process.

www.file-extension.org

https://superuser.com/questions/85987/mac-os-x-best-way-to-make-an-iso-from-a-cd-or-dvd

I have no idea whether or not any of the above will help the OP...

 

[Grumpus]

What does file /path/to/Ingy.cdr print?

 

[Grumpus]

What does file /path/to/Ingy.cdr print?

Also, have you tried to open Ingy.cdr with QuickTime Player or with VLC?

The output of hdiutil imageinfoabove indicates that the file is a DVD/CD-R master (Format: UDTO), is compressed, and doesn't contain a partition table. You could add a partition table by using hdiutil convert -format UDRObut without a valid, known filesystem the result still won't be mountable.

 

[NoBoMac]

Have you tried to change its extension to dmg and mount it?

Along this line: or change extension to .iso? Per this old thread, a possible solution.

Or can try following:

hdiutil attach -imagekey diskimage-class=CRawDiskImage /path/to/Ingy.cdr

 

[Nermal]

First and foremost, make a backup copy of the file before doing anything to it!

 

[mentaluproar]

What does file /path/to/Ingy.cdr print?

Data

 

[Nermal]

If it's an audio CD then I'm not surprised that it won't mount, but I am surprised that you weren't able to burn and play it. I wonder whether you might need to rename it to .bin and then somehow generate a .cue for it (it would likely be easiest to have a single entry covering the entire disc). I'm at work at the moment so don't really have any examples to hand.

 

[Fishrrman]

Could it be opened with Toast or the app called "Burn" ??

 

[bogdanw]

hdiutil attach -imagekey diskimage-class=CRawDiskImage /path/to/Ingy.cdr

Maybe add -noverify & a mountpoint

hdiutil attach ~/Desktop/Ingy.cdr -imagekey diskimage-class=CRawDiskImage -noverify -mountpoint /Volumes/IngyCD