Reading/Extracting .mac Backup for OS 10.6

Hello Forum

Sorry if this has been asked before, but I'm looking to extract my photo archive from a selection of DVD's. I used the backup utility that came with my .mac account to create the files a few years ago. I specifically backed up my iPhoto library onto 8 DVD's and now I have need to access that archive.

Obviously the old backup program isn't an option as that only worked with Tiger and I've upgraded to Snow Leopard now. I've tried a couple of extraction utilities (yemuzip & Zipeg) but neither of these recognizes the format on the DVDs.

The file structure on the DVD is BackupName/contents/contents/backup/users/me/pictures.zip. There are other files and folders on the DVD like "Backup Catalogue", "backup.log.gz", "infoPlist" etc.

Does the forum know if investing in Stuffit would work, or are there any utilities that would do what I'm after?

I'm hoping to extract the jpegs to an external drive, not to the current iPhoto library. Also my user name and directory structure on the new mac would not reflect those of the original backup. Would this complicate things?

Any suggestions welcome.

Kind regards - Smashey

Welcome to the forums.

The .zip extension is a standard file extension that should be recognized and handled by OSX and should not require a third party utility or application. What has probably happened is that the .zip archive is split across multiple DVD's and as a result can't simply be unzipped (this is my best guess anyway).

Do you still have a MobileMe account. A copy of the older backup software can be found in your iDisk/Software folder. The older software may work on SnowLeopard as well so I would try that first.

Note, as a quick test I downloaded and installed the app with no issues so if you can get the application you should be able to restore your files without issue.