I am trying to help someone upgrade their data that was stored on an old Mac PowerPC 6300 running OS9. She was using a very old version of FileMaker, FileMaker 4. The manual is dated 1988. The PowerPC began to die and she was given a Dell with a Pentium 4 and is running Windows XP. FileMaker Pro 7 has been installed on the PC, however, we are unable to convert the data. I attempted to convert the data on an iMac using FileMaker Pro 5 and am also unable to do so. Is there any way to retrieve this data and update it into a newer version of FileMaker? Please help. My friend is quite desperate.

Believe it or not, some of the older FileMaker applications run on the PowerPC. I have converted older files (prior to ClarisApple purchase of it) using FMP 1.x and I think 2.x will work as well. If the files aren't too big, you can send them to at my Email address and I convert them to 5, if you want, and those files than can be converted to 7.

Lee

Hi, Ismac! FileMaker 4 db's should be able to be converted to 5, no problem. Just run 5, go the FILE menu, select OPEN, and choose the file you want to convert. Give Lee a crack at it, but if you have already tried this, I think something else is wrong. First, only work from copies.. don't try to convert the original. Second, see if you can export the data as tab-separated text, just to make sure you have a nice backup of the irreplaceable information.

FileMaker 7 cannot open 1.x to 2.x, but should have no problem with 4. (and for those of you interested in why 7 cannot convert those older versions, HERE is FileMaker's ti doc on it but I think it's lame... they should have provided a utility or something if not just let 7 convert them)

Hope it works out...

--ST

Hi Steve,

I think you are confusing FileMaker 4 (by Nashoba Systems) with

FileMaker Pro 4 (by Claris Corporation a.k.a. FileMaker Inc.).

They are very different, and FileMaker Pro 4, 5, and 6 will not open the earlier FileMaker 4 files directly. The progression from Nashoba System files to FileMaker Inc is by opening them first in FileMaker II (by Claris Corporation) or FileMaker Pro 1 (by Claris Corporation).

Lee

LOL! Thanks, Lee. Actually, I assumed Ismac had FMPro 4... I didn't realize FileMaker non-Pro went beyond 2 (i.e. Filemaker II). I had thought it went FM 1, FM 2, FMP 1, FMP 2, FMP3, ... FMP 7. Sorry for the mixup... didn't even know about the non-Claris stuff.

--ST