Archived Mail

Hi Ramona,
I followed your instructions for the archive mail and I have a problem and some questions because it does not seem to work.
First I used lower case for the name "archive" rather than "Archive" because everything else is lower case.
I do not have a rewritable CD, so I created an "archive" directory on my C drive and put the inbox and sent mail folders in it. I then burned that onto a CD in my E drive which is my CD-R. So the CD has a directory "archive" and in it is "sent" and "inbox ".
I pointed the local directory to E:\archive and then tried to read it. I get nothing. However when I point the local directory to C:\archive, it reads the mail.
Why doesn't it work?
Also, I don't have any folders listed under the archive@someplace.invalid. I'm surprised this doesn't just have the name 'archive "
What are SBD Folders? I don't understand the sentence "If you copy the Archive file, you must also copy..... "

 

Sorry, I don't understand your incomplete sentence, which, no doubt, refers to something which you know, and it is present somewhere on the site, but no help, at this point.
SBD folders are subfolders, which contain files like Inbox and Inbox.msf, except that they have the name of the subfolder, and its .msf counterpart.

 

Westside,
Ramona has a website which has instructions for archiving mail. Here it is:
http://home.att.net/~cherokee67/archivemailcd.html

I followed the instructions but am having a problem because the account does not see the mail in the CD Drives.

 

Bob,

You must use a CD-RW, otherwise the Mail Client will be unable to read the CD in the "dummy" account, as you have already found out. The CD-RW allows you to access the folders (opening, adding messages, etc.).

The name of the account can be changed by going to the Account Settings and changing from archive@...... to archive.

 

Ramona,
I think that I understand the principle of the thing, but I want to make sure, because ackerberg said that he can read the mail if he points to the C drive. But, what is backed up is not on the C drive, so he must be reading from the folder which was (and is, still) originally. Assuming that you just want to read the mail (I don't want to add anything new), what is in a CD-RW which allows access to the folders which are in the CD-R?

 

Westside,
I copied the inbox and sent mail to a folder on my C-drive called "archive ". I then pointed the new account to that folder. It is actually reading that folder and not my regular profile mail account. The reason I am certain of this is that after I transferred the inbox to this folder and read it, e-mails that I received after I did the transfer do not appear--and they are in my regular profile inbox.
I have to buy a CD-RW, because I can not find the sample I have somewhere in my office full of junk.
I can answer your question, however. After I created the folder archive and read the mail with it, I discovered a whole mess of files had been written to the folder so it no longer contained only the inbox and sent mail folders I originally put in there. That means that the storage media on which you put the inbox and sent has to be able to record files for it to work. So the CD I tried to use can not work, but putting the folder on any drive that can record new data into the archive folder will work.

 

It does not matter where the folder is. You can point to that folder, but what you read is on the hard drive, and not on the CD.
In one case, I had several accounts, but I was picking them out of three different folders, but they were, all mail folders. I was asking Ramona why would you not be able to do the same if you had the CD-R in your CD drive, and point to that drive, while a CD-RW would work.
I understand what you are saying. I would not expect that a folder all by itself would be able to add anything. But, one should be able to read the messages a plain text.

 

Westside,
Maybe I misunderstood you. Your message seemed to imply that when I look at the inbox, for example,with my new account called archive, I was reading the inbox that I normally use with my mozilla Mail Program under an account that is in my name, Bob. I was trying to tell you that is not the case and I provided proof. The point is you can put the archive folder anywhere you want but in that location the archive folder must be able to be modified because the mail program in Mozilla must be able to write into that folder.
If you put the mail on a CD, rather than a CD-RW, you can not modify the file on the CD and the archive mail setup will be unable to read the inbox. You can write on the CD, of course, but you can not modify a file that has already been written on it, except by writing another file with the same name, but that will not have the extra files you need. I hope this is clear.

 

concur with Ramona & ackerberg,

I beleive that for an "archive" account to be available (read) that the associated *.msf file/files must be available for read/write.
ie cd-rw or Folder on HD .......

just my 2¢ worth

regards:captjlddavis

 

I agree that if the folder has no .msf file, you will not be able to read the e-mail.
I havestored old profiles, and have deleted their .msf files, and they have not be recreated. So, I guess that that file is needed, although I am having problem seeing why one would need CD-RW disk if nothing new is added.

 

It try's to verify and "rebuild" the *.msf file (just like when you delete it) and it can't write it. check the date/time stamp on one of your *.msf file.
For grins, mark one of your HD *.msf files RO and see what it does.

But that is just my thought.

regards:captjlddavis

 

Fulvio,

A CD-RW allows you to add, delete, and send messages, for the simple reason that it is rewritable... The CD is left open in order to access what was written, or burned, if you will.

In order to open the Inbox which is on the CD, if it isn't a CD-RW, you wouldn't be able to access any of the messages in the "Dummy" account created in Mail & Newsgroups. In other words, the Mail Client wouldn't be able to "see" the messages.

 

When I transferred the sent and inbox files to the archive folder on the C drive, they were the only files in the Archive folder. After the Mozilla mail program opened the Archive folder, there were many additional files including msf files in the folder. It is apparent that the mail program added files to the Archive folder. You can not add files to a folder which exists on a CD, you can only add more files to the CD. In other words, the file on the CD, once written, is closed.
Is there a better way to say this?

 

Just a quick suggestion, I don't know if this is your trouble but I have had trouble reading email on my cd/rw and it was a dumb mistake on my end. You must have the cd in your drive before you start thunderbird otherwise it will not read the cd!

 

OK, I bought some CD-RW's put one in my E drive which is a CD-R and transferred an empty folder called "archive" to the CD-RW. I then wrote the "sent" and "inbox" files from my Mozilla Mail program to the archive folder on the CD-RW.
I pointed the local directory in the archive account to E:\archive.
I closed everything up, left the CD-RW in the E drive, which can write to it, and nothing happens when I open the mail program.
Let me mention that I am using the program that came with this computer called "Record Now" for recording on CD's. I do not have EZCD Creator or Nero on my machine, but I could put either one on my machine since I own both.
I would prefer EZCD Creator since I used it before.
Do you have to set the properties of the CD Drives in some special way to make this work?
Ramona, in your notes you said to point the local directory to the F drive in your case. Shouldn't you be pointing it to the "archive" file on your F drive, i.e., F:\archive?
Do you have to change the properties of the CD Drives in some special way to get this to work?

 

I know you are frustrated, but you are making this hard by not following the guideline. You have to do it exactly as it is laid out.

On the CD-RW create a folder called "archive ".

Open Windows Explorer and copy the contents of the Mail Account folder to the "archive" folder you created on the CD-RW.

Place the CD-RW in the CD-RW drive (so you can edit/send messages) and then open the Mail & Newsgroups. You will be able to access all messages in the dummy account.

There is no special setting for the CD drive, and the program you use doesn't make any difference.

Your "Local directory" for the dummy account is the CD-RW. Keep in mind that it isn't a real Mail Account, it's a dummy account which is only used by placing the CD-RW in the CD-RW drive.

I note that in Thunderbird, you can copy everything, including msf files.

Let me know if you have more questions.

 

In your notes you said not to copy *.msf files. Does it matter.
also, is the local file just the F drive or is it F:\archive?

 

Do you have to format the CD-RW before you use it?

 

Bob,

Yes, the instructions do say not to copy .msf files, in Netscape/Mozilla. I mentioned TB as I wasn't sure which Mail Client you're using.

My SW does format the CD-RW.