Is there an (ideally open-source) application that would enable me to open and work in old classic Filemaker files (e.g. Filemaker 2 or 3)? I have small database that I add to occasionally which runs in OS 9.1 on my blue G3. But that trusty computer is still running its original 12GB HD, which is getting long in the tooth. Someday I expect it will give up the ghost. I have the drive backed up on my iMac, that's running OS 10.12.6, but of course most of the files are not readable by any OS X operating system.

If not, can I run a virtual OS 9 in Parallels? I probably have installation CDs for 9. I have Parallels Desktop 8, which I used to run Windows XP in, but no longer need it for that.

Come to think of it, my daughter's former blueberry iBook used to run OS 9. I wonder if that still works. . .

/Mr Lynn

---

"Hillbilly at Harvard"
Honky-tonk Country and Bluegrass
Founded in 1948 by Pappy Ben Minnich
Saturdays 9am - 11am Eastern
WHRB-FM, Cambridge, MA
Streaming at [www.WHRB.org]
Be there!
The HAH weblog: [hillbillyatharvard.wordpress.com]

Topical weblog: [walkingcreekworld.wordpress.com]

On the river in Saxonville.

Old versions of FileMaker are available to open and convert the FMP v.2/3 files. I've linked to the Google cache to the page with instructions because FileMaker's site isn't working well today:
[webcache.googleusercontent.com]

Open the files and export the data to XLS. It's possible to migrate the data to another database platform, but in my experience it's such a giant PITA (days of work and you lose most or all of your layout anyway) that it's just not worth it. Export to Excel and get on with your life.

---

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/06/2020 05:12PM by Sarcany.

At the least, I would export the data files.

Did you look into LibreOffice? I was able to get it to open an old database from AppleWorks (or was it ClarisWorks? Whatever it was in 1994 when I created it.)

You can download a demo of Filemaker still, or you could 6 months ago. I used it to work on an old database that I needed to get data out of.

[www.filemaker.com]

---

**************************************
MacResource User Map: [www.zeemaps.com]#