How to transfer Classic Mac Pro Tools and Logic files to a modern computer without file corruption

Sending DSS your Pro Tools files from the 90s

ALWAYS zip your files on your Mac before uploading them to a file sharing service to send to us. Never upload them unzipped, they will not survive. Mac Pro Tools files made with PT 1 through 8 should have always been stored on a Mac HFS+ file system during their lifetime, like a hard drive, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, DVD-RAM, DDS tape. If they were ever stored on NTFS, ExFat, or FAT32 (Windows file systems) they will be corrupted. When they are uploaded to the cloud unzipped, they are written to one of these file systems and become corrupted.

However, if your files are already corrupted, do not despair. For Pro Tools 5.1-8 sessions, we can recover the session even if the SD2 files have lost their resource forks. The session file contains the sample rate and bit depth information we need to restore all SD2 files. Send us what you have—we have recovered sessions with thousands of damaged SD2 files.

DO NOT TRY TO OPEN VERY OLD PRO TOOLS SESSIONS in current Pro Tools that do not have file extension by adding .ptf or .ptx, you will damage the file! Just get them to us using Usendit, Dropbox, Wetransfer, Starchive, etc. You must zip them first. If you use Google Drive use the option to share with anyone with the link. If they are on a PowerMac, G3, G4, any other Mac whose browser cannot connect to the modern internet DO NOT move them to a current computer by using a USB flash drive that is not formatted for macOS in HFS+ UNLESS you zip the files first. Most USB flash drives are formatted in ExFat or FAT32. While early versions of OS X can read these, copying native Mac OS X files to them without formatting them in HFS+ first will corrupt the files unless they are zipped. You can use the Disk Utilities app to format a USB Flash Drive to the HFS+ Apple Mac file system but you will need to zip the files on a Mac, regardless.

If you wrote the files to a CDR or DVDR with Mac OS 7.x, 8.x, or 9.x using the original HFS format (not HFS+), they cannot be mounted directly by macOS Catalina (10.15) or later—this includes both Intel and Apple Silicon (M1/M2) Macs. HFS+ formatted discs (Mac OS 8.1 and later had this option) can still be read. You will either need to find an older Mac running macOS Mojave (10.14) or earlier, or send us the discs. From there, copy the files to the hard drive and zip them. You can use any USB flash drive in any file system to copy the zip files to another computer for upload, even a Windows computer, if that Mac is so old that it can no longer access the internet because of modern browser security standards.

If you have hired a service to perform unarchiving from an obscure tape storage format or forensic HD recovery from a crashed or physically damaged hard drive PLEASE ask them to read this page, even they get this wrong sometimes.

If your Pro Tools session files have one of these icons below that is visible in current macOS (or still using a machine from that period) they, along with your SD2 files, will probably be OK as long as you zip them. Pro Tools Windows session files will not have any of the above problems.