netscape lost mail question

i apologize if this is dumb or redundant, because i am not that experienced in computerdom,
but i think i may have wiped out all my netscape mail on my hd inadvertently, when it installed netscape 7...
and so i googled and found some similiar sounding tales of woe
like this one, that sounds sickeningly familiar
http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?p=183439#post183439

and i'm thinking it does not look good, if i didn't have a backup
which i don't think i did....

i also found this reference
http://home.att.net/~cherokee67/ns7lostprofwinxp.html
but am having troubling understanding, following, finding everything

any help would be appreciated... am i out of luck?
thanks
greg

 

Welcome to the Forum, lostbrowser!

lostbrowser,

What OS do you run? That determines where your Profile is located on the HDD. Look here for your Profile Folder Location: http://home.att.net/~cherokee67/ns7profloc.html

Did you install Netscape 7 over an existing version?
If so what version did you install, and which version did you update?

Need this information so we can go forward...

Ramona

 

more info

i'm running win xp
and i usually leave the computer on for weeks at a time
and i guess sometime i clicked okay to downloading new netscape
but i can't remember or wasn't aware of it actually installing
but today when i finally turned off the computer and restarted,
and i launched netscape, then it came up with the dialog for setting up mail identity, server, etc and like a fool i did... and no more mail

 

Did you lose your mail, or access to the browser? I think that you just lost the link to your profile, which, usually, happens when one version was installed over another. And, I don't mean now, days or possibly weeks ago.
Whatever you use will tell you the version, under Help|About Netscape. What do you see there.
I don't know what happened to the winBBs link, but it is not correct. I have not found it, and the browser can't either.

 

lostbrowser,

First of all, no question here is redundant, and never dumb. How will you learn if you don't ask questions?

O.K., here's the drill:

Open Mail & Newsgroups, and click on:
Edit | Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings | Server Settings
In Server Settings, scroll down to the "Local directory" field
Change the path to point to the location of your Mail Account which contains the original mail files:

E.G.,
C:\Documents and Settings\user_name\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\profilename\*.slt\Mail\pop.yourisp.net

If you created 3 new Mail Accounts, the new accounts will be listed in Windows Explorer like so:
pop.yourisp-1.net
pop.yourisp-2.net
pop.yourisp-3.net

So you will want to change the Local directory field to point to the original Mail Accounts:
pop.yourisp.net
pop.yourisp-1.net
pop.yourisp-2.net

If you have any Mail in the newly created accounts, you can copy that mail to the original accounts by renaming the Mail files. Otherwise, the Mail in the original accounts will be overwritten.

Close Netscape
Open Windows Explorer and navigate to your Mail folder

In the newly created -1 account, rename Inbox to Inbox-1
In the newly created -2 account, rename Inbox to Inbox-2
In the newly created -3 account, rename Inbox to Inbox-3
Follow the same procedure for Drafts, Templates, and Sent files for each of your three accounts.

Don't copy any MSF files, only the files without the MSF extension.
Also copy any SBD files, as they contain your subfolders. Delete all MSF files in the subfolders.

When you open Netscape these files will be visible in your three Mail Accounts. You can then copy the files to the original Inbox, Drafts, Templates, and Sent folders for each of your accounts. I emphasize "copy" because if you elect to "move" the files, and if you have a power failure, or Netscape should freeze, you would lose the mail in its entirety. A copy will still leave the original folders in place. Once you are assured that all is well, you can then delete the copied mail folders.

Note that I am using three accounts as an example. If you have only one Mail Account, then there will be only the default account in the original folder, and only a -1 account for the newly created folder.

Ask away if you have further questions.

Ramona