Can't open recovered files, which are now Unix Executable Files

My external hard drive, where I kept my Final Cut Pro documents, recently died. I hired someone to recover the data. Now, when I try to open them in FCP 6, however, I get the message "File Error: Wrong Type". It says they are "Unix Executable Files". Looking back in this forum, none of the previous solutions have worked for me--like adding .mov to the file extensions, for example.

ah, the subtle difference between a movie or media file and a project file.
Thanks for posting your solution, hardly anyone ever does that around here. And congrats on the rescue! We rarely hear of a successful data recovery on media files but this was a data drive, yes? You could help future users who suffer catastrophic drive failures by posting your contractor and the cost if you want to share that information.
bogiesan

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Backup files are now Unix Executable files

I backed up my iPhone on my laptop (pc) but when i but transferred all my iPhone backup files to my iMac there was a couple of folders that are now Unix Executable files which are coincidentally are the same backups that I cant use to restore my iPhone without receiving an error message.
Also, is there a program that I can use to read the history.mapsdata file? Thanks

I automatically run OnyX once a week for maintenance, but it didn't help this situation.
Those chores won't reset the LaunchServices database. Go to the Maintenance heading and click on the Reset tab. Turn on the check box for "LaunchServices database" (all other check boxes off). Click the Reset radio button and then Execute. Restart your Mac.
OS X will automatically rebuild the database according to the applications on your hard drive, giving preference to Apple applications as they would be when you first install OS X. So if you have the Acrobat Reader set up to open PDF files, you'll have to do that again as they will be set back to Preview.
Actually it's .qxd not .qkd for Quark XPress file extensions.
That's it! I knew .qkd was wrong, but Quark 6.x won't show you the old extensions when you save a file, and I couldn't remember it (been using InDesign steadily for a while now).

Old Quark files are now Unix Executable Files

I made hundreds of archive CD's with Mac's running OS 9 back in 1990's. They contain Quark files and .tif's. I've referred back to these CD's many many times over the years with no problems. My new iMac has the intel processor. I pop an archive CD in and all the files (with no extensions like "tif" or ".qkd" or ".eps") are now "Unix Executable Files" that won't open.
I simply add an extension to the images files (like ".tif") and they work. HOWEVER, it's not so easy with the Quark files. I add ".qkd" to the file name and it still remains a Unix file.
I launch Quark and try to open the file through the finder and it doesn't work. I took an archive CD to a friends house whose on a G5 and the CD worked properly with no extensions needed to be added.
So I figure the problem is with the Intel/PC based processor. I shouldn't have sold my old G5.
One forum claimed that a program called "File Buddy" did the trick for him. Does anyone have any other ideas other than me buying a non-Intel Mac.
I love our new iMacs but I need these archive CD's to work!
Thanks

I automatically run OnyX once a week for maintenance, but it didn't help this situation.
Those chores won't reset the LaunchServices database. Go to the Maintenance heading and click on the Reset tab. Turn on the check box for "LaunchServices database" (all other check boxes off). Click the Reset radio button and then Execute. Restart your Mac.
OS X will automatically rebuild the database according to the applications on your hard drive, giving preference to Apple applications as they would be when you first install OS X. So if you have the Acrobat Reader set up to open PDF files, you'll have to do that again as they will be set back to Preview.
Actually it's .qxd not .qkd for Quark XPress file extensions.
That's it! I knew .qkd was wrong, but Quark 6.x won't show you the old extensions when you save a file, and I couldn't remember it (been using InDesign steadily for a while now).

HT2128 How do I recover old files that are labeled "Unix Executable File?"

Some files that were transfered from and older mac are labeled "Unix Executable File." How do I resd these files?

There is a terminal command called file which will give you a hint of what the file is.
/Appliactions/Utilities/Terminal
me ~$ file pki
pki: directory
me ~$ file pulse-cookie
pulse-cookie: data
type file space drag & drop the file onto the terminal, press return.
Robert

I can't open my ebooks which are in PDF

I bought $350 worth of ebooks from ebooks.com so I could read them on my bebook (mybebook.com) and the files don't open on my bebook, so I tried to open them on my computer so I could convert them to another format, but my computer can't open the files. This is what happens:
1) A window comes up that says: This document can't be opened because it's ownership hasn't been established on this computer. But I bought the books on this computer! There are two choices that I can click: 1) I own it and copied it to this computer or restored it from a backup and 2) Someone else gave it to me and I would like to own it. I click number one and then click on a button that says "establish ownership".
2) Then another window comes up that says: You will now be taken to the adobe DRM activator website where you will get instructions on how to reactivate your Acrobat or Adobe reader to allow for sharing and restoring of documents. You must be connected to the internet for this. If not, cancel and try again later.
3) So I click OK and am taken to an Adobe page that says:
Here's the problem and how to solve it:
You have tried to open an Digital Edition that was downloaded to another computer. You can open such a document on two computers only when you have activated Adobe Reader or Acrobat on both computers using the same Microsoft .NET Passport or Adobe ID.
Problem: This computer and the computer to which the document was downloaded were activated using different .NET Passports or Adobe IDs.
Solution: Return to the retailer, library, or other location where you acquired the document and obtain permission to open it on this computer.
I wrote ebooks.com and told them what was going on also, but I don't know if they will be able to help me because I downloaded the books to this computer.
Does anyone know what I can do to be able to open these PDF files?
Thanks,
Kyle Pounds

David,
I have tried with Adobe myself but to no avail. They are inconsiderate, and just downright rude and will not support the issues. They claim it's because it's a free product.
I am forced to keep an old computer for all of the books that I brought only because they will not open anywhere else. I have seen alot of crap on the internet about how to conver them but none seem to be easy or successful. I have alot of ebooks that just will not open anywhere else but that one pc. I have tried just about everything. I wish there was an easy hack to this issue. I hate adobe. I can't wait until there is some kind of law suit against them. I will definately take part in every way I can. Sorry for not having any better info on this.
Jose A. Colon
"Life without music would be a mistake"
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:11:04 -0600
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: I can't open my ebooks which are in PDF
I'm having the same problem and I'm in my third iteration with Adobe Tech Support via e-mail. They couldn't fix it and sent me to this forum to see if anyone else had fixed the problem themselves.
So does anyone have a solution yet? Can these files be converted to regular pdf files that don't require Digital Editions? It's a nice interface but the program doesn't work correctly.
Adobe's Digital Editions now prevents me from reading 4 out of 7 of my e-books. Moreover, I can't believe there's no one at Adobe that can fix this problem. Just as surprising is how little they seem to care.
I would appreciate some help if anyone has an answer. This is really disheartening.
Thanks in advance,
David
>

Where are these unix executable files coming from and how do I recover the original text file?

where are these unix executable files coming from and how do I recover the original text file?

When you upgraded to Lion did you have AppleWorks installed on your mac?
Most of the AW documents can be opened by Pages 09 or Numbers 09 with most of the orginal format in tact. (I do not know if previouse verision will work) just open the AW file with both and see which one works best.
Text Edit will also open most of the AW files as well but will require a lot of work to restore them to their orginal format.
If you have AW Database documents then they are not supported.
These document show up as "exec icons", Kind: Unix Executagle File.
They also will show up as .cwk file if they are small files. I have a couple that were under 1mb that are shown as " Kind: AppleWorks Document" but will not open.
The only option to open AW database is to have AW installed on a mac with a pre-Lion OS to recover the file.

Recovered files now UNIX Executable Files???

After my previous external hard drive failed I had the data recovered and placed onto a new external drive. After looking at the files I have found that a number of them have become "unix executable files." I don't know what this is or how to fix it. It seems to have only happened to things such as saved emails, but there are some photos from my digital camera that have converted to this as well.
While looking into the problem I found that the company that recovered the data placed it all onto an external hard drive that is an MS-DOS File System (FAT32) format instead of a Mac OS format. Could this be the problem since all of my files were Mac files, and the hard drive they were recovered from was formatted to Mac OS?
If this is the case, is it something I can fix myself without loosing anything, or should I take it back to the place that recovered the data?
ANY help would be greatly appreciated!

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
Yes the file naming probably was messed about with when they copied stuff over to FAT32. The files are probably there. However, the just need the correct file suffix to associate with the correct programs. A good way to test the files without hurting them is to view them in the Terminal with the program called More. Go to Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal and you will be greeted by a prompt. At the prompt type the word
more
followed by a space (do NOT hit enter)
and drag the file into the terminal following the word "more" and then when the path appears, hit enter. If there is intelligible text, the file is probably an e-mail. If there is no intelligible text, it probably is an image, or a system file. Preview can open the files which are images and save them to specific formats. Depending on the number of files you had rescued, it might be better to ask them to rescue it again, but to a properly formatted volume. You can try yourself if you still have the old disk with Prosoft Data Rescue.
In anycase, this is a very good lesson to always backup your data in the future as my FAQ explains:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
Good luck!

File type changed to Unix Executable File

Hello:
I restored a corrupt Word file from a back-up drive (files are backed up using a special rsync that splits data and metadata forks. I did not assemble the two forks before copying the file back to the production volume) into a production folder in a local machine. Now when I browse the volume from my networked computer all Word files without extensions show up as Unix Executable Files. I've cleared the Launch services in the networked machine with no results. If I browse from other networked computers file types are set correctly. The problem seems to be with this specific networked machine. What an I do to restore file types as they should be? Please, note the problem seems to be with the client machine not the file server.

Thanks, Kappy. I've tried that but I get an error message saying "An error ocurred while changing...because not enough information is available." Could that mean that the action cannot be done because these files don't have extensions? When I go ahead and select to use Word to always open the file it only takes effect on that file. But the file remains a Unix Executable file.
Could anyone provide any further help with this issue?
Message was edited by: Karkula

Using external HD, can't open up photos which are in library

HD crashed. Rebuilding using external HD running OS. For now just operating with external as my HD. Bring up iPhoto, select option, choose library on the external where the photos are, but iPhoto says there are no photos. I have checked around in the library and the photos are definitely there. Any thoughts?

Jeffrey:
It sounds like the database file, Library6.iPHoto, has been damaged. Check the size of that file. If it's very small than iPhoto created a new one that contains no photos even though they are save in the Originals folder. If that's the case your only option is to create a new library and import the Originals folder from the old library folder. This will give you the same rolls as the old library although some may have a different roll date.
You can try rebuilding the library, selecting all of the options, to see if that will bring them back but it's not been very successful for others. But worth a try.
Do you Twango?
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.

Unix Executable Files

after upgrading to Tiger 10.4.3, all my files that did not have a file extension (in particular all my fonts) are now Unix Executable files and unusable. is there any thing that can be done?

My boss if having the same problem! I however, am not. We have identical G5's, but our older G4's are slightly different with slightly different OS's and software. My boss has OS 10.1.3 and OS 9.2.2, also i have newer versions of photoshop and quark on my G4 than my boss does.
The file types he is having the issue with are .eps files from photoshop and illustrator, and quark files that don't have the extensions already. He was told by Support that the issue may be stemming from the fact that when he worked on his older mac, he booted up in OS 9, where as I always booted up in OS X and used OS 9 virtually.
We are trying to transfer the files directly now, while his older mac is booted up in OS X to see if that solves the Unix problem. But now we are running into the issue where, once the computers are hooked up by firewire, the process is freezing. Does anybody have any advice for us? We need HELP!!!
Thanks!
JdJ
Macintosh G5 Mac OS X (10.4.2) Old Mac - G4, OS X 10.3.2 & OS 9.2.2
Macintosh G5 Mac OS X (10.4.2) Old Mac - G4, OS X 10.3.2 & OS 9.2.2

Problems after opening "Get Document" Unix Executable file

After importing documents from my Dell computer to macbookpro and opening a file called "Get Document" which is a Unix Executable file, I now have dozens of these type of these type of files in "Places":
file://localhost/Users/sacredsprings/%25B0%2580%25A9%25C0SR
I had Linux installed on my Dell, and having read a few threads think it may be to do with that. Can I just safely delete all these files?

Sometimes ZIP files are made into self-expanding .exe files. When run on a PC, they will unzip without needing any unzipping software. They will not do this on a Mac, but Stuffit Expander may work with them
<http://www.stuffit.com/mac/expander/>

Unix Executable Files how to open

I have a disc from a design company which contains many Unix Executable Files. I have no idea what the content files extensions are and some of the files are quite large. The cotents are important for my job. Is there any way I can open these files? A 5 hour internet search and I'm no closer to a solution, I'm just more confused. I am scared to just try adding a 'guess' extention as the contents I am hoping to find are ai, psd or other hi res but there could be text data. I am scared of destroying stuff. Can anyone help me please?
Thank you,
Amanda

If the file follows the "proper conventions", in terminal use the file command. In terminal, type the command file followed by a space. Then drag one of the files into the terminal window. You will see a line that looks something like,
file path-to-file
Hit return. If it's a file that the file command can recognize it will tell you what it thinks it is. It it isn't it will tell you it's just a data file.
If it's a executable mach-o file file will tell you that and for which architecture. But if you are getting these files from some non-Mac system the odds are pretty good they can't be executed in the mac environment because they won't follow the mac architectural coding conventions or they aren't even mach-o executables in the first place. If they did come from a mac system and are executable, then without any documentation on each file you can only guess at what they may do (or screw up). Many unix tools have a convention where if you just execute them without any arguments they may give you some minimum help info on what they do. But it may not.
Not one of those files documents what on that CD?
If file does recognize the file, say as a pdf, or text, etc., then you probably can use mac tools to open them. For example, if it's pdf (gif, jpg, etc.) open it with preview. If text, open with textedit.

Unix Executable file - How do I open

I have a Software DVD ( Route 66 Road Planner ) and want to install onto my New Macbook, problem is I can't. I know it is an "Unix Executable file" ( Apple - i keys give me that information ) I do know that on my old iMac G4 it opens no problem using VISE and I'm using 10.4.10, any reason why I can't open this on my Macbook ?
Can I open it ? If so how ?
Thanks to all.
Steve

It probably requires X11. X11 is not installed by default in OS X. It is on the install cds though as an optional install.

Opening a Archival UNIX Executable file

I am currently using Maverick 10.9.2 . I am trying to open an archive file amd folder. The problem is that when I download the file, it appears as unix executable file and it cannot be opened. I have read in past posts that if the file does not have extension, it may become a unix executable file. I have changed them to .DOC, but no luck. Also when I tried to download the file later, the format changed to documents, but still could not be opened. Is there a problem because it was archived? If you have insight this problem as well, I would appreciate if you could let me know. Thanks in advance.

I'm assumimg that the file is either a zip, tar, gnuzip, or bzip2 archive. Remove the file extention from the file and move it to your desktop. From the Finder.app > Go menu > select "Go to Folder...", in the text box type- /System/Library/CoreServices . Drag the Archive Utility.app on to the dock. The Archive Utility.app icon will now appear in the dock. Drag the archive file onto the Archive Utility.app icon and the archive should be uncompressed and appear on your desktop.

Unix Executable files within apple programs, problem???????????

Sometime ago i was using logic pro 7,and saving my project folders on an external drive,,,all of my folders turned into EXE files and couldnt be read,,
Now ive wiped my internal drive,,reloaded the install disks,,used disk warrior,
If i highlight any icon such as logic,iDVD,garage band,,or any other,,"show package contents" ???? click contents then open the "MacOS" folder,, A black Unix Executable file is here,,,,in all programs,!!!!!!!!!!
I have tried to find out if this is normal as i lost a huge amount of project folders,,,,but there is nothing or no one i can find to resolve this issue,
i would just like to feel safe as im not much of a computer wizard,,
anyone got an idea? yours confused,, steve

I have tried to find out if this is normal
Yes, it is.
(48530)

Can't open recovered files, which are now Unix Executable Files

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