Geko Posted October 11, 2014 Report Share Posted October 11, 2014 ola, about 10 years ago I bought the CD with technical specs from the Heritage Motor Centre. I've used it every now and then but as technology evolves my new Mac doesn't have a CD reader anymore so I can't read the CD and can't seem to be able to transfer any .exe readable on my Mac. Any clues, lead as to ho to do it ? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Steve R Posted October 11, 2014 Report Share Posted October 11, 2014 Stef .exe files are programs so are executable, rather than readable, and if they are old, probably wont run on the new Mac, put the CD in an old machine and copy off all the data files, .pdf, .jpeg, .tiff whatever format it is in, onto a usb memory stick and transfer them that way, your Mac should be able to open them.. Good Luck Steve Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RobH Posted October 11, 2014 Report Share Posted October 11, 2014 I have one of these CDs and have never been able to read it on a Mac. The individual PDFs cannot be opened in Preview or with the Adobe Reader - I think they are in some odd protected format that will only work with the .exes on the disk. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Geko Posted October 11, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 11, 2014 (edited) I tried doing that in transferring the whole content of the CD on my HD but every time I'm trying to open a PDF file it says: "The file “01.pdf” could not be opened. It may be damaged or use a file format that Preview doesn’t recognize" When I open any file of the CD on a PC with a CD reader, the executable program called "autorun.inf" kicks in and enables the PDF files to open. No such thing happening here. One should find a way to by-pass the "autorun.inf" program so as to allow access to the PDF directly via Acrobat Adobe Reader. Below is a screen shot of the content of the CD Edited October 11, 2014 by Geko Quote Link to post Share on other sites
peejay4A Posted October 11, 2014 Report Share Posted October 11, 2014 Autorun.inf files in their simplest form tell the Windows operating system which .exe file to run. They won't run on any Mac unless you have Parallels or some other VM running. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
john.r.davies Posted October 11, 2014 Report Share Posted October 11, 2014 You can buy an external CD reader for Mac for about £25. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-SE-208AB-Portable-External-Writer/dp/B005N2UE2O/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1413023431&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=Mac+compatible+CD+reader No guarantee that the mac will read the CD, but worth a punt? JOhn Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RobH Posted October 11, 2014 Report Share Posted October 11, 2014 (edited) I have just tried to read the CD on a W7 computer. The menu program runs OK but I just get the same error message about an unreadable pdf format - so either the disk is corrupt (unlikely as its only the pdfs which are affected) or the format is a legacy one that modern systems just cannot read. Looks like we could be out of luck Geko.... Edited October 11, 2014 by RobH Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Steve R Posted October 11, 2014 Report Share Posted October 11, 2014 Stef If you can open the files on another PC, download a free copy of cute pdf,and print them using cute PDF, this is a virtual printer which produces another pdf file, that file should then be readable on your mac. A bit of a faff I know but if you can get them to open on a different PC this should work, if you can't open them at all, then they are probably stuffed. Steve Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Geko Posted October 12, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 12, 2014 Indeed I tried again but no joy. Pete is right, .exe file can only be executed under Windows so the only way to do it is to run Windows, part thereof or specific programs on Mac. Three methods are listed here Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RobH Posted October 12, 2014 Report Share Posted October 12, 2014 Stef - even that may not work. As I said above I tried on a Windows-7 computer and although the menu .exe runs, the same error message comes up about the pdfs when you try to select them, which it does using Acrobat Reader. A sticker in the CD box says the files are in a protected format but newer versions of Acrobat don't seem to recognise it. My CD box says it is for Win 2000 so its rather old now. Rob Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JayeM Posted October 12, 2014 Report Share Posted October 12, 2014 FWIW, we have the same problems with the Daimler CD's from Heritage - they won't run on a Windows PC running newer than XP - I've resorted to finding a cheap XP laptop and keeping it in the workshop for running these CD's....... Cheers, John Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Geko Posted October 12, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 12, 2014 What's the TRosetta stone then ? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mike3md Posted October 12, 2014 Report Share Posted October 12, 2014 Anybody had a problem running the Technicalities CD with W7? It does not autorun, and when I try and look at the folders on the CD, nothing appears. Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
graeme Posted October 12, 2014 Report Share Posted October 12, 2014 Hi Mike, I use W7 and the Technicalties CD works OK from Autorun and also the individual PDFs. Have you updated your Adobe Reader, my version is 11.0.9 Cheers Graeme Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RobH Posted October 12, 2014 Report Share Posted October 12, 2014 Success (sort of) - thanks for the hint Graeme. I have just updated to the latest version of Adobe reader and the pdf files can now be read if opened individually on my W7 laptop - the DVD has to be in the drive and the menu bit does not work but at least the files are accessible. It still does not work on the Mac - even though Adobe has been updated, so obviously the protection system is stopping that. Rob Quote Link to post Share on other sites
brucer Posted October 12, 2014 Report Share Posted October 12, 2014 (edited) I just copied the whole CD/DVD to my hard drive. I have never bothered to use the .exe I just look at the individual PDFs and have never has a problem reading them on W7 or Ubuntu. Bruce Edited October 12, 2014 by brucer Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RobH Posted October 12, 2014 Report Share Posted October 12, 2014 I tried that Bruce but it didn't work. There may be different versions of these disks (mine is version 1.3) with different levels of protection - the PDFs on mine are definitely not readable without the DVD in the drive. Ubuntu doesn't want to know either. Rob Quote Link to post Share on other sites
brucer Posted October 13, 2014 Report Share Posted October 13, 2014 Rob I guess you must be right about different versions. I do not know where my disk is now. I will see if I can find it and see what version it is. Bruce Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MikeF Posted October 13, 2014 Report Share Posted October 13, 2014 A PDF is a PDF and should open on any Operating System for which there is viewer software. That's the idea behind them. Theoretically therefore you should be able to view the disc contents on whatever Apple calls Explorer (Finder? ) and select the PDF of your choice. It works like that on my XP and Win 7 machines where I have copies of the CD files.I say in theory as there can be version/age compatibility problems on some PDF files. Steve R tip about using a free PDF generator to get a virtual printer gets over that handily and I do this frequently with old data sheets. Loading the software adds what looks like a new printer which when selected "prints" a new PDF file.That process updates them or backdates them as required. A quick search shows a number of people offering free programs for MAC, so you could try those or find a buddy to make you a set on a Windows machine.FWIW I use PDF Creator http://www.pdfforge.org/pdfcreator which I find slightly better than Cute but these are windows only programs. Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mike3md Posted October 13, 2014 Report Share Posted October 13, 2014 (edited) Graeme, I have the same version of Adobe, and suspect that the ability to autorun the CD went on a previous update, as it used to be fine. I have now worked out a way which works for me of viewing the files on the Technicalities CD - I open Acrobat Reader and use this to view the list of pdf files and open individual files. (Trying to see the files and open via W7 Explorer does not work.) Mike Edited October 13, 2014 by mike3md Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RobH Posted October 13, 2014 Report Share Posted October 13, 2014 Mike - it appears that there are protected PDF as well as the regular kind so no - you cant just open them as you would think. This is all to do with companies protecting their copyrights, its not just a reader version issue. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MikeF Posted October 15, 2014 Report Share Posted October 15, 2014 I don't know which Mike you are addressing, but if it was me: YEs you can protect PDF files to prevent (one of more of) them being copied, printed, opened edited, or extracted from without a password. So far as the Technicalities CD is concerned these (copying) restrictions don't seem to apply to the PDF files. Copying the CD to your HDD is different, this contains the PDF files and also executable programs and an index of contents. These refer to locations on the CD disc and are intrinsic to the CD operating or to the EXE programs themselves. So if you copy the disc to your HDD, depending on how the CD was built up, they will still point to the CD drive and that's why they may not work. The PDF files are still accessible though using Explorer/Finder etc which are part of your PC. IF you rip (Copy) the CD to another CD then it will work of course. Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Peter Cobbold Posted October 15, 2014 Report Share Posted October 15, 2014 (edited) I open pdf files that are protected in Firefox, not Adobe, then capture an image of the bit I want using Lightshot: https://app.prntscr.com/en/index.html Edited October 15, 2014 by Peter Cobbold Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RobH Posted October 15, 2014 Report Share Posted October 15, 2014 Tried that Peter but no browser seems to recognise these so called pdfs. Mike F - yes you are right. As I said in a post some distance above, they are readable in the latest version of adobe reader on a W7 machine if you open them individually from the DVD (they won't open if you copy them to the hard drive), so all is not lost - but nothing works on a Mac. Something seems to stop the pdfs on the DVD (not CD) being read if it isn't in the drive and on a Windows computer. Isn't DRM wonderful? I have e-mailed the publisher asking if there is a work-around solution to this. Rob Quote Link to post Share on other sites
tthomson Posted October 16, 2014 Report Share Posted October 16, 2014 It works fine for me on my iMac. I can open any of the pdf files from CD or from a folder on the mac after copying them (using Adobe Acrobat Reaader). The .exe files and Autorun.inf are Windows specific and I do not need them. TT Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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