Attached files sent from MAC to PC can’t be read (98)

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We are receiving files sent to us from Macintosh computers that have an extra extension .bin on them. I have read that Mac’s use this type of coding to send emails. We cannot open the files with our regular software. (they are proprietary DNA sequence files). Have tried removing bin extension – no effect. Tried unencoding with Stuffit expander – this removed the bin extension but still couldn’t read it. Tried sending it through our network to another user on W2K/Outlook2K – could not see the bin extension on this file but when sent back to user on NT/Outlook98 bin extension still there. Does anyone have any other suggestions on how to fix these files so they can be read again.

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I think modern mailers all speak MIME, but older Mac mailers did use binhex, which could generate files with extensions such as HQX. The extension should not be BIN; perhaps that reflects bad decoding by your mailer. Can the sender expressly create a Stuffit archive of the file and send that? Hope that resolves it.

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Have a look at this utilitiy. The platform neutral source may be useful. Otherwise if these are office documents that are being attached – ask the sender to add the MS suffix – .doc .xls etc. before they attach them. Mac documents, before OS X, store the orginating application in the data fork – so the suffix isn’t automatically included when Macs create these documents. The suffix wasn’t needed either to open them with another Mac as it would get this info from the data fork. You can also try changing the suffix from .bin to .doc (etc.) which often works, but you will lose some of the documents formatting.

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Thanks. I got the sender to create an archive with stuffit and send that. Using stuffit expander my end then allowed the file to be opened corectly. Thanks to all who offerred help.

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Thanks. I got the sender to create an archive with stuffit and send that. Using stuffit expander my end then allowed the file to be opened corectly. Thanks to all who offerred help.

Reply | Quote

Have a look at this utilitiy. The platform neutral source may be useful. Otherwise if these are office documents that are being attached – ask the sender to add the MS suffix – .doc .xls etc. before they attach them. Mac documents, before OS X, store the orginating application in the data fork – so the suffix isn’t automatically included when Macs create these documents. The suffix wasn’t needed either to open them with another Mac as it would get this info from the data fork. You can also try changing the suffix from .bin to .doc (etc.) which often works, but you will lose some of the documents formatting.

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