Oakbog maintains
a large working
collection of Classic and Vintage Macintosh hardware
and software, both as the Vintage
Mac Museum and as a resource for old Mac file transfers
and conversions. Macs have been around for over two decades, and
lots of data still exists on floppy disks and old hard drives. 
Oakbog
can help read these disks, transfer your files and (if needed) convert
old files from long moribund software into current formats useable
on modern Macs and Windows PCs - MS Word, Excel, QuickBooks, etc.
Oakbog's
proprietor Adam Rosen is an MIT graduate, an Apple Certified
Consultant and a continuous Macintosh user since 1986!
The
Process
Supported media formats include floppy disks (400k Single Sided,
800k Double Sided, 1.44MB High Density), SyQuest, Zip & Jaz
cartridges, Exabyte tapes, Mac CD-ROMs, and SCSI or IDE hard drives.
The process involves first transferring files from the original
sources to a work drive, then performing conversions on the copied
data. Transfers may require the use of several different Macs and
drives depending on the condition of individual media. Copying for
data retrieval is best done at first opportunity once the files
are readable.
Once transferred
files can be converted to current computer file formats, most commonly
MS Office compatible. Batch conversion is performed when possible.
If not, manual conversions can be performed (Open, Save As), sometimes
requiring interim formats. Common older formats include Microsoft
Word, Excel, MacWrite, WordPerfect, FileMaker, QuickBooks, MacDraw,
ClarisWorks, etc..When conversions are complete batch renaming
may be performed to make sure file extensions are correct and any
troublesome punctuation characters removed.
For some examples
of this process, see Tales
of Old Mac Data Retrieval and the Vintage
Mac Museum Blog.
Cost
of Services
Billing is hourly. Total cost depends on the number of disks and
files to be transferred, if conversion is required, and whether
there is any difficulty reading the old media. . Please contact
me for specific details about your project. Oakbog
Ratecard (PDF)
