Old Elementary School Teacher Needs Help

I am an older, technology challenged, elementary school teacher who teaches primary students to read, write, add & subtract.

I have an imac with a 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor.
The OSX install Discs I got with the machine say it is OS X version 10.4.7.
My wife installed OS X Leopard, and now the "About this Mac" message says that I'm running version 10.5.8.
She said she had to install Leopard in order to install Bootcamp and Windows so that she can boot up the computer in either system.

I also have the hard drive from my old G3 that I placed in a metal box that I bought from a computer store. It plugs into a USB port on my imac.
On that hard drive I have hundreds of educational documents that I have produced over the years using "Microsoft Works 4.0". The hard drive also has the old Mac OS 8.5 that ran the G3

When I plugged in that hard drive and booted up my mac while holding the option key, Boot Camp looked like it was allowing me to select the old hard drive as the boot up disk. But then it looks like it reverted to the OS X Leopard when it actually booted up. I could open up the menu for the old hard drive, but when I tried to open Microsoft Works 4.0, it gives me this message: You can't open the application "Microsoft Works 4.0" because the Classic environment is no longer supported.

I poked around on the internet and got mixed messages. Some said that the Intel Core Duo processor was the reason Classic environment wasn't supported. Others said that the Leopard OS was the culprit. I really need access to those documents, and unfortunately, the rest of the old G3 is in pieces and the monitor is gone.

Someone suggested that I try saving them in a new format like Microsoft Word. When I am in the Windows OS I can't even find that my computer recognizes the attached hard drive.

I don't really want to try transferring the files to a new format since they are worksheets and tests that took a long time to format. I'd really just like to open them up in Works 4.0 again.
Can I do it with my current set up?
Would it work if I took off Leopard and reinstalled OS X 10.4.7?
Should I just buy an older Mac and plug in my old hard drive to that?
Thank you to anyone who can help me.

 

If you dont absolutely need the Leopard, the easiest thing would be to put back 10.4.7. Everything should work as before, since you had no compatibility problems with these docs and 10.4.7. Otherwise, it seems that you'll have to convert these files into other formats. Although your external HD is not recognized by the Windows, if you put the files onto a USB drive (FAT/FAT32 formatted), you should be able to read/write in both Mac and PC. That could be a way to transfer them from your external HD to a Windows computer (or bootcamp running Windows), convert them to Word and transfer back to iMac.

Good luck!

 

"Classic" means it has to run under an Mac OS 9 emulator... which isn't supported anymore, and its not just because of Intel processors, they started killing off that support before the switch.

I don't think you could have used Classic to run Works 4 even on 10.4...

sadly there is not much that can be done.. your best bet is getting those things out of a Works format, since its old, no longer supported, and completely proprietary and not licensed out formats.... so other programs just cannot run them, because MS wont let them...

I know MS has a file converter for MS works 6, 7,8, and 9.... but 4? you might be out of luck... "MS Works" was one of the worst things you could have made them in... one of the few of the era that is hard to convert....

 

You might have to revert back to 10.4.7 if you said they worked under that. Then convert them to anything else as soon as you can. Might be forced to copy and paste them once you get them open and put it in Word 2008 (for Mac) or something else...

Also, you might want to get them on a FAT32 drive so you can work on them in both OS and Windows, that will increase what options you have...

Good luck, keep us posted.

 

what if he installs rosetta? i know that rosetta makespower pc apps compatible with os x..perhaps that may be the solution.

 

Rosetta =! Mac OS 9 support

 

maybe you can get a pretty old mac and install mac os classic on it.

 

Thanks for the idea of saving to the usb drive. I'll give it a try and see if I can open them up in windows Word

 

Thanks for the reply,
I created them on Works 4 because that was the cutting edge tool when I began creating them. Since I learned how to use it, I stuck with it. Thank goodness they don't redesign wrenches, screwdrivers and sockets every six months or I'd have a garage full of non-usable mechanics tools too.
I'll try saving to a thumb drive and open them in Word.
-Old Teacher