Hi there!

I have some very old tables done in FileMaker long ago -- somewhere between 1986 and 1990. Unfortunately, I no longer even possess a Macintosh and am trying to recover the data contained in these files. There's no schema to speak of -- just a few two- or three-column tables, one per file as I recall. What's the best way to get at this data?

I think you can still find a trial copy of FileMaker Pro 2.1 on the Apple FTP site. Convert the files with that, then you can open them in FM6. From 6 you can go to 7 or 8.

Can I run FM2 on Windows? I have no Mac access to speak of...

Forgive me if I'm wrong here but I think FMPro 4 will do the job as well here and I think the trial versions were limited to handling 50 records or so.

You can still pick up FMPro 4 on ebay, but you have another more pressing problem...

The data files are most likely on floppy disks, which are formatted on Mac format, so you'll have difficulty reading on a PC. Also, as you haven't read the disks for some time there's a great possibility the disks have lost their data.

So, possibly you still need a Mac with floppy support. As the data is probably very important then you're unlikely to want to send them anywhere without you being in hand - maybe you can find a local Mac enthusiast who can help.

As Mac is very popular in the printing industry you could try searching for local printers. There's even a chance they might use FMP!

Fortunately I was smart enough to migrate the files as I upgraded computers...just too dumb to keep the formats current! I have the files on a PC hard drive so I'm pretty sure they are good (and both data and resource forks should be in there, I recall having a converter that carried both across).

I will look for Mac people in the area!