Please help: OS9 to OSX file problems

wicky

play thing
I've just installed a new eMac in our office, and copied across all of the old working files (word, quark, etc.,) from the OS9 iMac that we had before.

The problem is, that I am now unable to edit the file names of these old files in OSX for some reason!! I've checked that each file has the correct permissions, and i've repaired the disk permissions for the whole volume using the disk utility on the installer CD, but the problem still persists.

Has anybody had similar issues, or does anybody have any ideas how to mend the problem?

(PS. OSX 10.3.7; all software has been updated; rebooted more times than I can remember)
 
What error is it giving for not renaming them ? Definitely sounds like a permissions problem, did you copy them to the same partition as the OS ?
 
The disk is not partitioned, there is only one physical HD with one volume on it. It is not returning any error message, it is simply not allowing me to edit the file names even in the info panel.

I suppose I could open each file in turn and try to resave it, but there are lots of files!!! At best this solution would be an inadequate work around, and I'd like to avoid it if possible.

It's a fairly weird problem that I have never heard of before (obviously)... none of the usual permission mending tricks (that I know of) seem to have any effect.
 
A quick question. Did all of the files have file extensions? Many files will require these in OSX if they did not SPECIFICALLY have metadata descriptions attached to them in OS9. (I know this can be an issue with Quark and Word files).
 
By default the system disk under OSX is read only in all areas outside the home share. Try copying one of the files to your home share and renaming it there.
 
The issue isn't to do with opening the files, the permissions work fine in that respect (ie. not write protected). The specific problem is clicking on them and and editing the name in Finder.

In answer to your question, no they haven't got a suffix, however in order to give them a suffix I need to click on them and edit the name..... which is exactly what the OS is not letting me do.
 
Tommo said:
By default the system disk under OSX is read only in all areas outside the home share. Try copying one of the files to your home share and renaming it there.

All of the files are already located in 'Users/Home/Documents'. Is that what you mean?
 
If Users means the user you are logged in as yes, if not then look in the Users Folder and find the folder named after the username logged in and copy a file to the Documents Folder in there.

Sorry if this is a bit vague.
 
There is only one user account on the machine, named "Office", as this is the generic office machine. The path for the files is "Users/Office/Documents/..."
 
Wicky, is your finder in "list" view? In Panther, clicking a file
hi-lites it. A second click on the name let's you edit it.
 
Sorry if you've already checked this but maybe the files have locked somehow, can you check or uncheck the locked box in the get info window?
 
Albloom, clicking on the name to edit it is the way that I normally edit file names, and it was the very first thing that I did. It's what made me aware of the problem..... in-fact, it is the problem. I can't click on and edit the filename in any of the three available views.

The files are all unlocked according to the info panels.

I dunno... maybe it's a sign that there is a bigger problem with this install of the OS. Shrug
 
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