HI, look, to be honest .winworldpc.com is an ALL .7Z file format site, but it holds some very, very valuable beta OS's in it. Could someone PLEASE write a .7Z format unzipper for Mac OS 8??? Seriously, it's stupid that we should have to beg people with more modern hardware do unzip software for us. At least that's my case, as I have a B&W G3 Power MAcintosh running, on three seperate hard drives, 8.7, 9.2.2, and 10.0.4. I am BEGGING for this!!! I already have the 8.6 beta downloaded, but I can't USE IT because it's in 7-Zip format! Which is in itself stupid because if people are downloading Beta software, isn't there a SLIGHT possibility that they are using an OLDER MACHINE?!?!?! There, that's my two cents, and my plea. PLEASE HELP!!!
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2011, July 19 - 12:09am
#1
REQUEST!!!! Can someone WRITE a .7Z unzipper for Mac OS 8?
Comments
2011, July 19 - 3:44am
#2
I'll take another look at it. 7z just happens to be extra complicated because it's a container format for other compression algorithms. Even though I almost never need to mess with 7z, it would be nice to have since as you said, it's another format being foisted upon us.
2011, July 19 - 12:58pm
#3
It'd be great to get that support. In the meantime, maybe there is a good solution for remotely un7zipping archives? Here's a site I found - http://www.wobzip.org/ they take up to 100MB files.
2011, July 20 - 1:30am
#4
Some of the contributers at winworldpc haven't a clue when it comes to archiving classic Mac software, so even if you do manage to successfully extract files from their .7z archives, its still "hit & miss" to their usefulness - at least this is what I've found from a couple of large DLs
Yes it would be excellent to have a 7-Zip like app ported to Classic Mac OS. But while we're waiting for that to happen, some things to try if all else fails...
a) Got a PC in the house? Use 7-Zip etc on Windows to extract .7z archives. If the PC isn't networked to your Mac, use a USB drive or burn to CD and transfer.
b) No PC? Got a friend nearby with a PC? Same as above, only travel and extra time added.
c) Install Virtual PC onto any of your Mac drives. Install 7-Zip and extract to a VPC drive container. Copy extracted file to shared Mac/VPC folder.
d) Install a newer version of OS X onto your b/w G3 and run a .7z compatible app.
2011, July 20 - 7:31am
#5
Did anyone inform the guys at winworldpc about the problem?
2011, July 20 - 9:42am
#6
xy is quite right, usually their 7z files are only the shell for some sit file, a little text or pdf or some kind of image file, mostly ISO. From the server side, it should be a rather easy fix.
But I didn´t ask for a change either.
2011, July 20 - 12:41pm
#7
What I meant by the "Some of the contributers at winworldpc haven't a clue... etc" comment, was that some of the DL'd CD ISOs should have been "bootable" on the Mac I needed it for. But they weren't. This has nothing to do with the ".7z" format they arrived in, because the damage had already been done before they'd been added into the ".7z" wrapper. That is, whoever had created the archive, made it go fubar before it got put into the 7-Zip format.
As for informing them. I tried to but couldn't without registering, which I didn't want to do at the time - just to have a whinge. I may do if I go back there...
The one DL from there that really annoyed me even more than DL'ing whole CD ISOs that couldn't boot was seeing a set of original Centris/Quadra 660AV floppy disk images that had been uploaded directly as Disk Copy 6 image files (bad bad bad bad BAD) and then compressed as .7z. Totally FUBAR! - and its not that they were compressed as .7z that was a problem. Its that they had been uploaded to a server in Disk Copy 6.x format that ****ed them in the 1st place! I have a working Centris 660AV and would love to have a set of original install disks for it.
2011, July 20 - 1:26pm
#8
Couldn´t you use the disk images from Apple Legacy Recovery ISO, Mike?
There is a Centris 660AV folder with disk images from 7 to eight in English.
All right, its not the original floppies, but as close you could get, I suppose.
Sorry for going off topic.
2011, July 21 - 6:48am
#9
@24bit:
Couldn´t you use the disk images from Apple Legacy Recovery ISO, Mike?
There is a Centris 660AV folder...
One might think that someone like myself, who isn't shy of "skip diving" to rescue an unloved Mac, would have this CD already in his personal archive. Well, I do now, as of today. Actually it has the original installers for the Quadra 660AV/840AV series which is just .2 of a version difference from the original Centris 660AV/840AV SSW installers. This software is 100% compatible with my Centris 660AV 
The only difference hardware-wise between these Centris/Quadra models is the name change when Apple decided that Centris wasn't too hot a name choice only 3 months after the 1st Centris 660AV rolled off the production line.
I think that this is about as close as I'm likely to get to the original install set. So thank you very much for the heads-up.
2011, July 20 - 6:01pm
#10
I dont know much about Mac OS 8, but there is source for the 7z command line tools (Windows) here...
http://www.7-zip.org/download.html
I imagine with a decent c compiler it wouldn't be *too* big a leap to port it over?
2011, July 20 - 6:05pm
#11
Funny, there is even a version for good old BeOS.
2011, July 20 - 6:46pm
#12
Hi guys & gals,
A thought that comes to mind. Decompress with 7zip on a PC. i have it myself and I like it a lot. Take the resulting mac files destitute of their resource files and copy into Basilisk | old mac of your choice via zip, CD, MO or whatever tickles your fancy. Rebuild resource file with a TypeCrea tool. I haven't tried it yet but I'm interested to hear if it'll work or not.