I'm running CorelDRAW 2022 on a Windows 10 Home 64-bit machine with 16 GB RAM. I have some old files I created back in 1994 with CorelDRAW 4 (4.04) and 5 (5.1). I would like to open them and save them in a more modern version but 2022 doesn't go back that far. I actually have my original CorelDRAW 5 install CDs and product key, but the application won't install with my modern operating system. I'd prefer not to have to set up a whole different machine with Windows 98 or XP, but let's assume I do. My questions are:
* Assuming I can open these files in CorelDRAW 5, what file format can I save them in that will allow me to open them with CorelDraw 2022?* Does anyone know a way I can bypass that hassle and somehow import the old files in CorelDRAW 2022?
* Are there any utilities (not by Corel) that would allow me to open and/or convert these old files?
Thanks all!
Might be a bit late if you've already settled on a solution, but to add to the discussion, we have the same issues here. Started using version 4 in the 90s and still have some old v4 files around. Installing v15 (X5 - the X was added on version 13 because some marketing peon thought 13 was unlucky so they better change it to X instead, so stupid) might work for some things but v4 files are especially problematic. We have a setup on a windows 10 machine with v12 installed (actually looks like v11 might work also but we had v12 handy, don't think v10 will work on win10) that handles the old files a bit better, especially text on a path which can really get messed up on old files even if the file opens in modern versions like v23 (2021 - again, let's just drop the pretense of giving versions model years like cars, it's also stupid). So, opening in v12 *usually* fixes that, then opening in v23 gets you results that are close to correct. But, some v4 files refuse to open in v12 even, sometimes you get something, but pieces might be missing or out of position and text is anyone's guess as to what you might get. Some v4 files might just crash v12 outright, it blinks and goes away and you're back at the desktop.
The only option I can think of in these cases is to either install a windows 98 virtual machine and install version 6 or 7 on it and try it that way. You can create a virtual machine install for low or no cost but results may vary and it's not trivial, look up youtube videos on how to do it, I haven't actually tried it yet, as the files in question aren't super critical. The other more expensive option is to build or buy an actual windows 98 or equivalent physical machine and install v6 or v7 on it. I say 6 or 7 as those are the oldest versions that v23 or newer can open, and *should* open the old files with fewer problems. Probably v7 might be the better choice as v6 was created for windows 95 and was the first foray into the new versions of windows and had some issues. Version 7 was a bit more stable, saying that, v8 or v9 would probably also be OK, the question being which one has the best luck opening the version or specific file you are looking to open.
Thanks for that alternate path; sounds very well considered. I have a Windows XP VM all set up and ready to go, and the copy of X5 that I found on eBay just got delivered today. I'll probably install it this weekend and give it a try. My one fear is that the copy of X5 is the academic version which may impose some limits, so I have reopened my service ticket with Corel to ask if they would be willing to upgrade the academic license to a full version, considering the circumstances. No reply from them yet. I'll post updates on both efforts here.
I have successfully set up a Win98SE VM with Draw 8 running on it and opened a few old files, one that would just crash every other version that tried to open it and one dating from November 1993. It was not trivial to get it set up though. I decided on Draw 8 because it's the first version with Font Navigator though it appears to have problems. Here's a list of what I did:
Install Oracle VM, pretty straightforward. But had to change the option for virtualization of the CPU in the host PCs BIOS. Not a big deal really.
Get Win 98 SE ISO and use it to install Win 98 SE, also fairly straightforward. ISOs for various old software are available on archive.org or winworldpc.com. You may need to source registration keys elsewhere, but it wasn't difficult to find any I needed.
Installed SciTech Display driver to get out of 640x480 mode. A bit tricky and took some fiddling with settings and reboots of the Win98 OS and restarted the VM completely, but it works, can go up to 32 bit color 1600x1200.
Installed Draw 8 from ISO, even though I have the original install CDs, windows 10 does not like them and just spits them back out, probably because of the autorun program. Once I got it installed, it worked nicely, used my old original key to install.
OK, now fonts. Not easy, but I made an ISO of all my fonts as that's an easy way to get the VM to read another folder on your drive, though eventually I found a way to do that too.
Pointed Font Navigator at the ISO of my fonts and it only finds the Truetype ones. Of course, for Adobe fonts you need Adobe Type Manager, so found the ISO for that, and installed it. Truetype and Type 1 fonts now work.
Getting the VM to see my network drive with all my files on it required a few changes to the Win10 permissions on that machine holding the drive, not a huge deal but now that machine has slightly less security because of it, oh well. Could also use this technique to get it to read my fonts folder instead of using an ISO, by mapping the fonts folder to a drive in VM. That also needs the host machine to have it's network security options changed a bit.
OK, try to open my first old file, and Draw seems to hang when I hit OK at the font matching dialog and has to be force closed. Starting it back up, it now has one less font in the list but hangs on installing the next one, seems that if the missing font list only has one font in it, you're fine, but more than one it hangs each time after it installs the first font and tries to move on to the next. A bit inconvenient, but the way around it is to manually install the needed fonts in Navigator first and open the file.
File open but now Draw just crashes. GDI interface error. So it doesn't like displaying something. I poke around in the options looking for something like accelerated graphics but the only thing I find is the type option to smooth the edges of fonts on screen so I turn it off, and it works! Opened a few ancient files and saved them out, then opened them in Draw v23 and they work just fine.
If you're using a Win XP VM then you shouldn't have as many problems as I did because Win 98 is not really supported by the Oracle VM and a few of the things I had to do were because Guest Additions are not available for Win 98 but I think they are for XP so sharing folders and such that I had to do work arounds for should be easier on a Win XP VM. I may install a Win XP VM just to see how it goes if I get a free afternoon like today.
Installed a Windows XP VM and it was much easier than the Win 98 install. Guest Additions make it simple to share a folder from the host machine to the VM so finding fonts and the files I need to open is easy. Font navigator works fine as Type 1 fonts are supported out of the box. It does seem to have an issuing using the fonts it installs on the first try though, it will list the fonts needed and install them but sometimes it doesn't use them, closing the file and opening it again loads the correct fonts. The only thing that doesn't work is Type 1 multiple master fonts of course, so if you have multiple master fonts, you're going to need to use a Win 98 VM with Adobe Type Manager running.