apple llgs still working but don't know how to convert database

Hi OVDA<

Welcome to the discussions and the AppleWorks forum.

It's been a while since I used any of the Apple II versions of AppleWorks.

Your best bet for producing a file transferable to another database program would be to export to a tab delimited text file, or to a comma separated values text file. Either of these plain-vanilla files can be picked up and used by most DB applications, but you will be able to transfer only the data, and will lose the field names and any formatting.

A larger difficulty may be getting the file out of your IIgs and into the other computer.

If your IIgs is able to connect to the internet for email, you should be able to send the file as an attachment, then save it on the new machine. If your IIgs has an ethernet card, you should be able to make a direct connection with a newer machine.

Other than those methods, you'll be looking for some sort of compatible media on which to save the file, carry it to the new machine, then load it from the media. That could turn out to be a challenge, and may require the use of an intermediate machine to move the file from one medium to another.

Regards,
Barry

Hello

The apple II gs worked with two kinds of operating systems.
If you where using the late one: GSOS, you where storing datas on 3"5 disks or even on a SCSII drive.

If I remember well, there is at least one person on this forum continuing to run a GS. I hope that this complementary message will bring the problem to its attention 😉

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE vendredi 27 octobre 2006 22:00:49)

It's been a long time since even turned on my IIgs & even longer since I opened AppleWorks GS on it. It's no longer recognizing the external hard drive so it's a real pain using floppies, even though I do have 2 3.5" drives. It's been so long since I've had to answer a question on this, I can't find one of my old posts with the rather lengthy explanation. Barry did a very good job, noting that the most difficult thing is to get the files from the IIgs to the "modern" Mac.

Macs using a system prior to OS 8, I believe, can read ProDOS/GS-OS disks. Although there were high density drives available for the IIgs, very few users had them & used double-density 3.5" floppies. None of the USB floppy drives that are the only thing newer Macs can use can read them, only the high density disks. So, the problem is getting from ProDOS formatted double-density floppies to a current Mac. I keep an old PowerBook 1400 to read even Mac-formatted double-density disks. The best sources for finding someone with the ability to copy the files would be a school, probably an elementary school, or an Apple II user group. These user groups do still exist & a Google search might be the best way to find them. The last I heard/read a few years ago, there was a group still active in Tacoma, Washington, Northwest Apple Pickers.

Macs using a system prior to OS 8, I believe, can read ProDOS/GS-OS disks

Actually, OS 8.1 will read a ProDOS disk with no complaints. I've got an older Performa 6220, and still occasionally use it to refer to some old AppleWorks files that were created years ago on an Apple-//c.

That's good to know. I won't have to install 7.6 on the 1400 should I need to access an old floppy. I think I did get all of my AppleWorks GS files transfered to ClarisWorks 1 when I got my first Mac in 1992.

Peggy,
At the risk of straying off-topic...
Depending on how badly you miss using your GS, "Bernie ][ The Rescue" is a reliable emulator that will run just fine on your 1400.

As a matter of fact, I do have a registered copy of Bernie from back in June, 1999. It works quite well but they wanted more money for each update/upgrade. I didn't miss it that much!

Of course, I also like the St. Bernard!

Did you read the second paragraph in my post above? You need to use a Mac that is capable of reading a double-density floppy disk & that is running a version of the Mac OS that can read the ProDOS-formatted disks the IIgs uses. That would be a Mac with a built-in floppy drive. No USB floppy drive can read a double-density disk. You would then copy the text files from the floppy to the Mac's hard drive & then copy it to another medium. That could be a high-density floppy, a USB flash drive (if there is a USB port on that Mac), a CD or it could be e-mailed.

I had an old Performa 5200 that had a drive that would handle the Appleworks files from my old IIGS and IIc. The IIGS ran PRODOS 7 or 8. I think the Performa ran OS 7.5 or 8.0. I converted lots of files to Mac that way back then. It was a perfect bridge to the new technology. There should be machines of that type around somewhere. I think the department I taught in still has one that I bet they don't use much. I know the database will convert if you can find one. You might have to uses Mac OS9 though-I'm not sure

George,

I'm not sure why you chose to reply to me. Your last two sentences don't make a lot of sense to me. The other things you said have been said earlier in this thread by others, not just me.

I have no problem at all transfering any file from any computer to any other computer, be it my IIgs to one of my many Macs to someone using a Windows PC & back again.