Will a new iMac be able to read files from Tiger?

[Frisco]

My friend is getting a new iMac. He is currently using a Quicksilver which is dead because Mouse Ports (USB) don't work.

If his hard drive to an external USB enclosure and connect it to a Modern Mac would he be able to read the files on it to transfer to his new iMac?

 

[casperes1996]

If it's formatted with something like HFS, FAT or similar there should be no issue. Not all the files may work with modern apps, but getting the files over shouldn't be a problem at all

 

[DeltaMac]

Correct... There shouldn't be a problem with reading files on an external drive, regardless of where they originate.
Problem MIGHT come if your friend has files that might have been created with older software, and new versions of that app don't exist, or don't handle the old files now.
Do you have any idea if your friend has any special software needs? An example might be old versions of Photoshop, or Adobe Illustrator. A Tiger system can still use classic MacOS apps, maybe something like Pagemaker, etc.

 

[Frisco]

No. Mostly just Word documents.

 

[DeltaMac]

Word documents should be good-to-go
Won't even need Word, unless there is special/unusual formatting for documents.

 

[Frisco]

Thank you very much!