help recovering netscape 7.2 email files

I managed to hose my hard drive partition (windows xp/NTFS) but have found what i think are my netscape mail folders using pc inspector file recovery program.

for example, i see a folder named "inbox.sbd" with sub folder file "family" that has large file size. i can save that file (family) but not sure what to save it as or how to recover it.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Jeff

 

Hosing down is one thing, but finding a folder which could belong to a NS profile is an entirely different thing. Is/was it there all by itself, or part of larger folders?
Typically, a profile would be located this way:C:\Documents and Settings\user_name\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\profilename(default)\xxxxx.slt\Mail\accountname
The latter folder (accountname) should have pairs of files, like Inbox, and Inbox.msf, etc, and subfolders should be in Inbox.sbd, if subfolders of the Inbox.
Save the entire thing, but, after creating a new Netscape profile, make sure that you do not copy the .msf files, or delete files like family.msf, to be pasted in the new profile.
At this point, I have no feeling if you are just recovering individual files/folders or what.

 

thanks. good news first. for most of the files I found using pc inspector, I was able to save to a directory, then copy them into appropriate mailbox directory (now using mozilla/thunderbird) and now emails show up in the appropriate folder. life is good.

bad news is that i was not able to save a couple of the files located using pc inspector. got the following error message "could not read source file! (device: fixed disk #1 (37.27GB) MFT file ref:31995, size 285969508)" when trying to save (used the same method that worked for 10 other files).

I could not find the files using search from windows and pc inspector does not show the directory in the search result so not able to figure out where they reside. Therefore I am sssuming the files are corrupt but not sure what programs are out there to help me find and fix.

 

Do you know that the profile files are hidden in Win2k and later.
To see hidden files:
1. On the Tools menu in Windows Explorer, click Folder Options
2. Click the View tab
3. Under Hidden files and folders, click Show hidden files and folders
4. Disable "Hide File Extensions for Known Files. "
5. Click OK.

I have no idea what happened, but if the files have been found are they in the original location, or is PC Inspector pull them out. Also what are the names of the files?

 

as background, had system set up to dual boot windowx xp and linux. 1st drive was 40 gig and was partitioned with xp and suse 9.0. 2nd drive was 200 gig. wanted to replace 40 gig drive with new 200 gig ($50 bucks from fry's what a deal) so tried to use norton ghost to copy windows partition from 40 gig to 200 gig drive. got errors in norton and appeared to be because c had too many partitions. tried to resove using windows disk manager and freeing up partitions I created for linux (was not using anymore). not sure excatly what I did but end result was computer would not boot. tried to use xp in repair mode. it would find xp in c:/windows but could not repair it. eventually gave up and reloaded from scratch. when I did , none of the programs were available (i knew that) so tried to reload netscape 7.2. looked like everything was fine but when I tried to run nothing. (click on icon and nothing). gave up on that and loaded mozilla. got that working so want to try and get old mail files back.

i also ran chkdsk /f /r.

now to answer your question. file name is inbox. pc inspector found abot 6 of them named that and I was able to save 3 of them. the other three it will not save giving me the error message i indicated previously. I can not find those files using windows search even after trying what you suggested. therefore I suspect they are corrupt in some was as windows is not finding them but since I can find them with a recovery tool I am assuming there is a different tool or method I can try. I do not know, other than on the c drive, where they are located as this info is not proivded by pc inspector.

thanks for the help.

 

All Mail files should be in the same profile location, unless they wer somehow moved. I say somehow, because not long ago, I found myself, two in a six months period of time, with files in unexpected locations. I, finally, got fed up, and, created a new profile, restoring order.
If the files belong to the same account, I don't know, but having several mail accounts, I found that I had a few of them directed to a different folder, from Mail and News Account Settings|account name|server settings|Browse local directory.
This happened only with one account of mine in Thunderbird.

 

resolved. i found the files by checking the "find hidden files" option in windows explorer. copied these files into the mail folder and all is well.

Thanks for the help.