Backup file appears with a PC icon and won't open in mac os 9.2

Question

Hi, I have a green imac powerpc at home and need to open some old files backed up on an external hard disk.
The external hard disk is fat32 and was formatted by a pc.
unfortunately the files I need appear as PC files with a blue PC icon, but I'm sure they are Ready, Set & Go files created
on mac os 9.2. Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

There is a classic discussion.
https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/classic_mac_os?view=discussions
I shall try to find a friend with Tiger this weekend, hope it helps.
Fyi: The Mac OS X system needs to be Tiger or newer.
You may try this. I tried it long ago, but kind of forget the details.
Be sure to format the usb stick on  a Mac with a Mac OS file system HFS+.
Create several files with Ready, Set & Go files created.  Some empty.  Some with data. etc.
Copy these to the usb stick with a Mac Format.
Copy to a Tiger or newer system.
Create a dos formated usb stick. 
Copy good files to the dos usb stick. This splits the files into a data and resource fork. This is a Tiger innovation.
Now you need to replace the data fork with the other data fork.  The data fork has the normal name.  The resource fork starts with ._
You will have to see hidden files.
turn off hidden. 
Copy the files back to to a usb HFS+ formated flash drive.  This puts the files back together.
I suggest you bring along a coy of Ready, Set & Go.  If your friend has classic installed, You can test there.  Or, bring you computer along. You may need to do this more than once.
Macintosh-HD -> Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal
# Show hidden files & folders in finder
# Just copy the the line starting with defaults into the terminal. Press return to run.
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE   ;killall Finder
# Normal display.  Hide hidden files & folders in finder
# Just copy the the line starting with defaults into the terminal
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE  ;killall Finder
The finder comes right back.
See: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4070684?start=15&tstart=0
Mac OS files may contain two parts: Data & Resource. On HFS+ disks you see only one file.  On Dos disks, you see two files. One file is visible.  One is hidden. Turns out I have classic installed on my system.  The finder application contains  data & resource forks.
# My Dos flash drive is DOS formatted
# Previously, I copied the Classic finder to the Dos flash drive.
mac $ pwd
/Volumes/dos/seeparts
mac $ ls -lah
total 4848
drwxrwxrwx   1 mac  staff       8K Mar 15 13:51 ./
drwxrwxrwx   1 mac  staff      16K Mar 15 13:50 ../
-rwxrwxrwx   1 mac  staff       6K Mar 15 13:51 .DS_Store*
-rwxrwxrwx   1 mac  staff     512K Mar 15 13:50 ._Finder*
-rwxrwxrwx   1 mac  staff       1M May 29  2001 Finder*
# Here is the file on my startup disk.
mac $ ls -lah /System\ Folder-current/Finder
-rwxrwxr-x   1 root  admin       1M May 29  2001 /System Folder-current/Finder*
# If you know this clever method, you can see the resource fork.
# Notice the ending /rsrc!
mac $ ls -lah /System\ Folder-current/Finder/rsrc
-rwxrwxr-x   1 root  admin    512K May 29  2001 /System Folder-current/Finder/rsrc*
mac $