Our company had a survey done in 2004. The computer the information was stored on died but I was able to access the hard drive and transfer all the files to our current computer. We previously used ArcView 8 and Arc Reader and I know those versions are no longer supported. My question is this – Are the files I saved from the old computer truly the data we need to be able access the survey or is the data lost for good? I tried talking to customer service and they could not/would not transfer me to technical support unless I had a current license. I cannot see a reason to buy a new license at $1500.00 if the data is lost. File extensions are .dbf .prj .sbn .sbx .shp .shx
Looks like you got what you need.
Hi Laura,
You should be good to go with those file extensions, but you can test this by setting up a free trial account. You can try uploading the shapefiles in a zipped folder to a trial ArcGIS Online organization or download ArcGIS Pro and try to open them. If either works, then you're good to go with buying a license.
https://www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/trial
Hope this helps!