title: Macintosh Resource Forks - Choosing File Formats for Preservation
creators: Tyler Thorsted
abstract: The preservation of files from early Macintosh Classic (OS <=9) may often require special handling in order to ensure long term preservation and rendering. The classic Macintosh operating system would use two “forks”, a data fork and a resource fork. Resource Forks may contain graphics, sounds, fonts, and additional code. In addition, the file system would store two 4 digit codes for each file, one identifying the creating software and another identifying the type of file as extensions were rarely used. Because of this unique information within the Macintosh file system, most modern preservation systems are only aware of the data fork and information can be lost. Round-tripping a file through a preservation system and back to the original OS can help identify potential loss.
keywords: resource fork hfs risk finder