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This File Is Used By System Software. It Cannot Be Opened. How do I open it?

I

Ickyma

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 30, 2005
14
0
Perhaps someone can help me. What does this mean? Is there any way to access the data in this file?

Background: I decided to upgrade from OS 9.2.2 to OS 10.1 (Don't ask me why!). BEFORE doing so, I made a folder with all the 'stuff' I wanted to keep and I burned it to CD. THEN I DOUBLE CHECKED MY BACKUP - IT WAS ALL THERE AND ACCESSABLE. So I proceeded with my upgrade. After the upgrade, I had 1000 different kinds of trouble... I won't bore you with it - suffice to say, when I turned my iMac (the Blue One) on this morning, it came up in OS 9.2 - I have no idea why! Yesterday it was in OS X and working fairly well (albeit after 6 hours of hard work to get it to that point!)...

The thing is: I put in my 'BackUp Disc' and try to access my files.. and this is the response I get:

This File Is Used By System Software. It Cannot Be Opened.

I am fairly certain that the data is on the disc (2 yrs of Business and Legal information!) but I need to know how to access it!

Can anybody help???

Thank you in advance for any suggestion/help.

Icky
 
Ok, keep your problems in the same topic. I wouldn't install OS 10.1 on your iMac. Instead, I would break down and get Tiger (OS 10.4). OS X.1 is full of problems, and isn't a good way to make the transition to OS X in my opinion. Or even get a copy of Panther (OS 10.3). Either 10.3 or 10.4 are good OS's. Anything less isn't worth upgrading to. You should be able to get OS 10.3 at a reduced price now that Tiger is out.

If you want OS 9 on the drive with 1 partition, make sure that you install OS 9 FIRST, BEFORE installing OS X. If you install OS X and then try to install OS 9 on the same partition, it won't let you.

Also, make sure you meet the minimum requirements for OS X:

-G3 or higher (Checks out with an iMac)

-At least 256MB RAM (128 will work, but not very well)

-DVD drive for a Tiger installation (OS X.4 comes on a DVD) you can get the DVD exchanged for CDs though if you want to pay extra.

-At least 6MB of Video RAM (8MB is required for most iLife things)
6MB is required for 1024x768 at Millions of colors
 
First OS 9 Clean...

I had the same idea... I installed OS 9 CLEAN! Started ALL OVER with OS 9... Then tried to access the Data on my BackUp Disc... Didn't work!

So, I then put in OS X.... tried it again... No good.

Then I went up to OS X.1 tried it again... No good.

Then I went up to OS X.1.5 Tried it again... No good.

Worked the rest of the day yesterday in OS X... Came in this morning, turned on the computer... and it was back to OS 9.2 !!!!!! Don't understand.

All I want is the Data on that disc... I don't care about anything else right now...

Icky
 
Ickyma said:
I had the same idea... I installed OS 9 CLEAN! Started ALL OVER with OS 9... Then tried to access the Data on my BackUp Disc... Didn't work!

So, I then put in OS X.... tried it again... No good.

Then I went up to OS X.1 tried it again... No good.

Then I went up to OS X.1.5 Tried it again... No good.

Worked the rest of the day yesterday in OS X... Came in this morning, turned on the computer... and it was back to OS 9.2 !!!!!! Don't understand.

All I want is the Data on that disc... I don't care about anything else right now...

Icky
Click to expand...


You may have set the startup disk to boot into OS 9 instead of OS X. Go to Control Panels in OS 9 and then to Startup Disk and see if there's an OS X folder that shows up. If so, click on it ONCE to select it and then restart and see if it goes into OS X.
 
Start Up Disc...

I have switched back and forth between 10 and 9.... Neither will allow me access to my data...

The data in question are a bunch of Spreadsheets, Letters, and EMAILS (from banks and lawyers, etc...)

I am not sure what happened... I 'Suspect' what I saved was 'pointers'... on my CD it tells where to find the particular files... BUT, it goes and checks... and there is nothing there... :/

I am almost resigned to having lost the data...

BUT!!! In the event that I am wrong... I am still open for suggestions from any and all of you folks!

Thanks again for your continued help...

Icky
 
If you just want to know wether they are the real files or just links, check their size (right click-Get info). If it is just about 12 bytes, then you're screwed, they're links. If not, then there's a change of getting the info; you could try copying to the hard drive before opening, for starters.

Oh, and to log into OS X, try pressing 'X' while booting.
 
Right Click?

Right click? my mouse isn't that complicated....
 
If he had copied aliases, it would most likely say "original item could not be found" when he tried to open it.

Under OS 9 if you make a .dmg file -- you may have to download a new copy of Disk Copy when you wipe and reinstall the system.

If you compresed it using stuffit, you may have to install the latest version to recognize the files.

Because not all of the the copies that install with the older copies of a Mac OS recognize the latest .stx or .sitx files.
 
Two thoughts come to mind.

(a) Why are you even bothering with X.1 or .1.5? Try Panther at a minimum. Make sure you install the firmware upgrades (if needed).

(b) Who (in their right mind) goes 2 years without creating any other backups of important legal documents?
 
Good Stuff!

King! You are absolutely correct... and I do have some data from about 6 months ago... Don't know if you noticed or not, but my first post here was "IDIOT BOY NEEDS HELP!" I think that says it all!

SunBaked... Kudos to Count Blah! Thanks for your help everybody!

I'll letcha know....

Ick
 
Q for Jeniero

Jeniero, I did your 'right click' advice... amount of data on my disc was more than your suggested 12K... but not much...
If I told you it was 32K, would that mean anything to you? My guess is: I'm still screwed!

Tell me what you think!

Ick
 
Ickyma said:
Jeniero, I did your 'right click' advice... amount of data on my disc was more than your suggested 12K... but not much...
If I told you it was 32K, would that mean anything to you? My guess is: I'm still screwed!

Tell me what you think!

Ick
Click to expand...

Actually, my suggested size was 12 BYTES, not kb; if every file you have is that big, it means they are real files :)... now the problem is reading them. When you say you tried to open them, I assume you mean by double-clicking them; so let's get our hands a little dirty, shall we?
First, open the terminal (on OS X). Get to the folder where the files are (you can use the command "cd folder" to do this, where "folder" is something like /Volumens/CD), and execute the following:
ls -la
You should get a list of the files and some other info. Copy it and paste it here to see if we can help you.
 
Not sure how to do this...

OK... you said, "go to the folder where the files are (you can use the command "CD FOLDER" to do this, where "Folder" is something like /volume/cd), and execute the following:

ls -la


Well... I confess, I don't know where to enter in any commands.

The "folder" is the CD to which I burned my files? So (whereever it is I type in commands) I type in CD NAMEOFCD ?

I know I sound clueless, and I probably am... BUT I have never had any problems out of MAC before and I am having trouble with this...

Thanks again,

Ick
 
Thanks Yellow

Thank you Yellow... That is a good thing to know!

Now... the name of my BackUp disc is: Back-Up 6-30-05

I put the disc in the drive...
I type in CD Back-Up 6-30-05

and it tells me 'Too Many Arguments'

I type in cd /Back-Up 6-30-05/cd and any number of variants... and get the same response....

How do I make it recognize the CD that's in the drive?

Ick
 
Ickyma said:
How do I make it recognize the CD that's in the drive?
Click to expand...

UNIX doesn't like files/folders/volumes that have spaces in the name. To get around this, you have to use a \ preceeding the space to specify that there's a space following.

cd /Volumes/Back-Up\ 6-30-05

Then

ls -la
 
Voila....

Here is the copy/paste of what I found... lemme know if it means anything :)


[localhost:~] ericbrew% cd /volumes/Back-Up\ 6-30-05
[localhost:/volumes/Back-Up 6-30-05] ericbrew% ls -la
total 28
drwxrwxrwx 8 ericbrew unknown 264 Jun 30 10:09 .
drwxrwxrwt 3 root admin 58 Jul 7 15:12 ..
-rw-rw-rw- 1 ericbrew unknown 6148 Jun 30 10:09 .DS_Store
d-wx-wx-wx 2 ericbrew unknown 264 Jun 30 10:09 .Trashes
lrwxrwxrwx 1 ericbrew unknown 15 Jun 30 10:09 Desktop (Mac OS 9) -> /Desktop Folder
-rw-r--r-- 1 ericbrew unknown 1024 Jun 30 10:09 Desktop DB
-rw-r--r-- 1 ericbrew unknown 2 Jun 30 10:09 Desktop DF
drwxr-xr-x 3 ericbrew unknown 264 Jun 30 10:09 Temporary Items
[localhost:/volumes/Back-Up 6-30-05] ericbrew%
 
That's what I thought

Yellow, you've been a big help. Thanks a lot for all your help! I really appreciate it.

BTW, I have used MAC for about 3 years.... ALWAYS CLASSIC!

Ick
 
Each one of the lines you got stads for a file/folder you have in the CD. For what I can see, this looks like you just grabbed your home folder and threw it on the CD... The files are:

. means this folder (/Volumes/Backup...)
.. means the parent folder (/Volumes)
.DS_Store: I think this is the resource fork file. What it's certain is that's got nothing to do with your files
.Trashes: apparently, your trash can. Check it and see if there's something inside.

Desktop (Mac OS 9) : This one troubles me the most. It's a symbolic link, and points to \Desktop Folder (as you can see with the arrow). The contents of \Desktop were not saved, so if your stuff was there, it's lost (this file weights only 15 bytes, very close to the 12 I had guessed).

Desktop DB and DF: system files, nothing to do with your stuff.
Temporary Items: a folder with temporary items (duh!). See if it has something inside.


What I think happened here, is that you had your stuff in Classic, and you thought they were in the "folder" "Desktop (Mac OS 9)", when that actually was just a pointer to the real folder. You dragged and dropped on the CD, and didn't know that it doesn't work with symbolic links... When you tried to "check" that everything was there, the pointer took you back to your HD. Sorry, but there's nothink you can do, that data is lost :(. Just learn from this and next time check the size of the CD to see that it has everythink it's supposed to.

EDIT: After posting I saw the last two messages... this confirms what I had suspected.
 
Thanks to everyone!

Thanks to everyone for your input. Days ago I was resigned to having lost the data... BUT, I continued to follow your suggestions hoping for a miracle.

In the meantime, I learned a LOT! Thanks again.

Ick
 
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