Moving E-mail on same computer from Me to XP on second partition

I loaded windows XP on a second HD partition (F) original ME partition (C) and followed the steps to migrate my Netscape 7.2 mail accounts but it still does not work. I am convinced it is because I am using the "F" drive but have no idea how to fix it. Help!

 

Welcome to the Forum, yogiturtle!

yogiturtle,

Are you trying to share the same Profile on the two OS', or did you create a new Profile on the Windows XP partition?

Exactly what have you done to migrate profile data, and what happened when you tried? Sorry for all the questions, but in order to get your data where you want it, more information, and detail is needed.

Thanks!

 

While we wait, my personal experience indicated that I could not go directly to a non-C drive (which is default), but I could create profiles, or move them to another drive. But, if XP is working in the F drive, can be the same file/folders which are hidden in the C drive, be unhidden in the F drive.

 

Westside,

Not having partitions, I asked a friend some time ago, who has Mozilla on two drives, what happens when Mozilla/Netscape is installed on two partitions, and this was the answer:

You can put the profiles in another location, but in Moz, and NS, the registry.dat file will be in the default location.......

So I conclude if yogiturtle is using the same Profile, then it would be necessary to copy the registry.dat file from the C: partition, and replace the registry.dat file on the F: partition. It will also be necessary to edit the prefs.js file to change the path from Windows ME to the Windows XP path.

 

I had partitions on my old computer, and I was never successful, unless I used the default location for windows, and the other partition for the other OS.
This was with Win98, and I heard that WinXP is much worse.
But, I did not pursue the issue to the end. I followed the path of least resistance

 

My first suggestion is to just do an export from one and copy that file over to the othe (or a shared data partion) and then import it on the other.
Are you trying to use the XP file and settings transfer wizard?

 

Clarification Answer to some of the questions

Thanks all for the replies so far. To clarify. I am not trying to "share" netscape profiles I have installed Netscape 7.2 on the "F" drive in an XP environment and hope to eventually dump my ME system on the C drive and stick with the XP system after I am confortable with it. I have several apps in ME that won't run under XP even when using the compatability option. Anyway if I can't figure out how to "just move" profiles I am thinking that I will try to export the mail and bookmarks from Netscape on the ME system to Outlook on ME then try importing to Netscape on the XP.

Meanwhile If anyone else has successfully done the move to a second drive on the same PC please let me know how.

 

Ramona's post #4 in this thread holds the answer, in case you did not understand. There is a fairly detailed description in Ramona's Netscape Solutions . The subject deals with transfer from pc to pc or OS to OS in the same pc.

 

With Netscape you can just copy the data file from within your profile folder. It will be the larger of the two files
For example you will have something like this
C:\Documents and Settings\your name \Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\default\numbers.slt\Mail\Local Folders
In the XP version
and c:\windows\applicationdata\Mozilla\Profiles\default\numbers.slt\Mail\Local Folders
In ME/98

Inside that you will have folders and files
Note that there will be a big file with no extension. This is the data, you copy it to the new account. Do not copy the .msf file it is an inventory and format file which will be built the first time you try to open the file (which will show up as a folder under the account in Netscape mail)
It will say "building summary" then the folder will open and if you were to check back, there would be a .msf file

 

yogiturtle,

1. Am i correct in ASSuming that you have a "dual boot" system ?
ie - you can boot into either ME or XP.?

2. When you boot into XP (7.2) what does the profile manager show ?

3. Does it show the profiles for the ME install ?

I have several Moz and NS installed to "E" drive under XP, ALL profile data is controlled by the "registry.dat" file which is located on "C" drive - which is the root drive for the installed OS.

Please do a "File find" for "registry.dat" on your "F" drive and let me know if you have one there ?

very interesting indeed....

regards:captjlddavis

 

Because XP was installed after ME when I boot up I am presented with the choice of either OS prior to windows starting.

It does not show the ME install profiles. Just the profiles I created in the XP environment. The instructions given by Ramona say to not start Netscape after creating the profiles and do the editing first . I did that but to no avail. When I started Netscape I did not have the ME profile info. Now I suspect that I need to delete something to clean up if I want to start over. Uninstalling Netscape did not get rid of the profile info. I even deleted the MOZILLA folder in the documents and settings folder but that was not enough somewhere there is another file or data that needs to be cleaned up.

There is a "registry .dat" file on my "F" drive. It is in the directory "F:\Documents and Settings\WinXP_profile_name\Application Data\Mozilla

I tried to import my ME Netscape mail into Outlook Express and then export it to a file that I could use to import in my XP Netscape. I was successfull in moving mail around within the ME partition using import features on the mail software receiving the data. BUt I can't find a way to get Outlook to export the mail to a file that could then be read by my XP Netscape. I have now given up on that route and trying to dig further into the Netscape to Netscape problem.

 

yogiturtle,

Thanks for the information. Based on what you have said, I would suggest that you start with a clean NEW profile and copy the data from the ME installation.

1. Create a NEW profile - give it a unique name e.g. yogi_7.2_xp

2. From you ME profile, copy:
Bookmarks.html
Abook.mab
History.mab
nnnnnnnn.s (passwords file)
key3.db
nnnnnnnn.w (from fill data)

I am not sure about "mimetypes.rdf" when working cross OS's ?

3. Create your mail accounts. Create in the same order as your ME accounts. DO NOT DOWNLOAD MAIL.
This will create something like - mail.isp.com for the first account you create and mail.isp.com-1 ect. for subsequent account.

If they are in the same order as the original ME accounts, you can copy over
mail.isp.com from the ME to the XP profile - and so on.....DO do this for each account.

I believe that you will have to reinstall any extensions that you previously had installed in ME .

This is the basic procedure I use for any NEW installs - as I said before - I have had very poor results trying to "migrate" or "import" data....

This is just MHO - others may differ, but this works for me.

Please post back and let us know how things are going.

HTH

regards:captjlddavis

 

yogiturtle,

What instructions did you use? If you followed this guideline:
http://home.att.net/~cherokee67/ns7pctopc.html

Did you remember to edit the prefs.js file to change the ME path to the XP path?

EDIT:
If you decide to create a new Profile, then in addition to the files that captjlddavis recommended, also copy these files from the ME *.slt folder:


cert8.db (Security Certificates)
cookies.txt
cookperm.txt (cookie and image permissions)
custom.dic (Dictionary)
key3.db (Key Database - Certificates, Passwords, etc.)
panels.rdf (Panel displayed in the Sidebar)
persdict.dat (Mozilla Dictionary)
search.rdf (Search Plugins in the Sidebar)
training.dat (Junk Mail training data)
user.js (If you have created the file, if not disregard.)
usercontent.css (If you have created the file, if not disregard.)
userchrome.css (If you have created the file, if not disregard.)

 

Success!!!!

Thank you all for your help!

Here is what I did:

To start from scratch I deleted the Mozilla folder in the F:\Documents and Settings\my_name \Application Data directory which had been created during my previous migration attempts.

I opened the Netscape Profile Manager created the profiles with the same name as in the ME C drive. Did not start Netscape.

I copied (dragged and dropped) the contents of the Profiles drectory in C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\MOZILLA to the F:\Documents and Settings\my_name \Application Data\MOZILLA directory

Renamed the *.slt directories to match the names in the registry.dat file in the F:\Documents and Settings\my_name \Application Data \Mozilla directory. that was created when I created the profiles in my XP (F drive system) In retrospect I don't think I had to do that.


I edited the prefs.js file in each profile to change the path
"C:\Windows\Application Data" to
F:\Documents and Settings\my_name \Application Data

I also changed all references to the "C:" drive to "F: ".
There were a few.

I commented out the lines with references to "C:\Program Files\Netscape|Netscape\Profiles....."

In all my previous attempts I simply changed all occurences of "C:" to "F:" but kept getting a "directory not found" error message when starting Netscape and selecting the migrated profile .

Upon close review of the prefs.js file I noticed some references to "C:\Program Files\Netscape\Netscape\Profiles....." which of course even when changing the C to an F these directories do not exist in the XP environment

I am not sure why they were there in my ME system but I suspect it had to do with a previous migration from Windows 98 to Windows ME a few years ago.

There were also some references to "C:\Program Files\Netscape|Netscape\Profiles..." for news groups. Since I don't use them anymore I commented them out also.

I saved the changes started Netscape and voila all my mail, address book and bookmarks were there.
Anyway I do appreciate all the help you folks provided. This was my first time using a BBS forum and it was very usefull. Thank you!

 

I think that any OS from Win98 to Me are of the same ilk. In fact, Ramona's Netscape solutions say so.
Quite a job! Well done.