Unix Executable Folder?! Can it be saved?

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Level 1

4 points

Unix Executable Folder?! Can it be saved?

To keep it simple...

I have a collection of folders for English lessons.

Last year or so, I am pretty sure I copied them from a PC onto a USB and now on the Mac it reads as a Unix Executable File/Folder with Zero bytes.

It is only a few folders that got turned this way.

I tried putting them on a USB to see if they can be read on a PC... nothing.

I went throughout the web, and I am lost at what to do :(

Below is what it looks like...

Any way to really get these folders back to normal and rescue all my ppt/word/image files on there?

MacBook Pro 15″, OS X 10.11

Posted on Jul 30, 2022 7:04 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

HWTech

Level 9

68,666 points

Jul 31, 2022 6:15 PM in response to squishette

If you right-click or Control-click on the file and attempt to manually open it with the appropriate app and it won't open, then most likely the file is corrupt. You may need to click on the drop down list box to select an option to see all apps in order to manually select the appropriate app for that file. Especially since you are now unable to open these files on Windows as well (did you try the same thing on Windows by right-clicking and manually selecting the appropriate app?).

Did you transfer these files using a USB stick or a USB hard drive/SSD? Many USB sticks are notorious for corrupting files. When I run tests on many USB sticks I find that a bit will get flipped from time to time.

You should transfer another copy from the original source or retrieve a copy from a backup.

Never save the original copy of a file to a USB stick and never have the only copy of a file stored on a USB stick.

You should always have frequent and regular backups of your computer and all external media (including the cloud) which contains important & unique data.

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