Help to Restore Deleted Netscape Address Book

Hi All, help!..

I accidentally deleted an entire address book from my NetScape mail interface. Im trying to figure out if it is posible to find the deleted file and restore it.

My efforts so far:

1. Looking for the file (.mab)

Im using Netscape 7.2. The address book was one I had imported (rgaddress). Reading the posting on the Netscape and Mozilla address book

(http://home.att.net/~cherokee67/ns7theaddressbook.html)

I surmise I am looking for a .mab file. When I do a file search on my entire c:\ drive including hidden files, I find 3 files (abook.mab, history.mab, and impab.mab).

In Netscape I am able to see "Personal Address Book" and "Collected Addresses" but not my imported (later deleted) address book "rgaddress" - which is what I want to get back.

2. Trying file restore

Using WinUndelete I looked for .mab files that could be restored on my c:\ drive and it found none.

3. What Next?

I do seem to have 3 .mab files in my profiles. Is it possible that the impab.mab file is actually my deleted address book? If so, how can I get it to be visible in Netscape again? If this is not my deleted file, is there anything I can do to try to get it back.

Thanks,
- RHG

 

Welcome to the Forum, RHG!

RHG,

First, open the IMPAB.MAB file in either Notepad or WordPad. I believe you will see that the file contains NO addresses. Once you delete an Address Book it cannot be retrieved. I'm sorry to give you the bad news!

The good news is: you can now move ahead to a more secure, faster, browser and mail client. Netscape 7.2 is obsolete, has many, many, bugs, security vulnerabilities, and will not be updated...

If you are dead set on a suite, like Netscape, then you will be delighted with SeaMonkey 1.0.2. Or if you want an outstanding standalone browser, then install Firefox 1.5.0.4. The browser is enhanced with the use of Thunderbird 1.5.0.4, a powerful, and customizable, full-featured email client. Most certainly these two programs are my choice for secure, stable browsing and e-mail.

When you install, any of the three applications, they will automagically migrate your Netscape 7.2 Profile. No need to worry about losing anything, altho it is always useful to backup your Profiles folder before doing any editing. I think you just experienced the repercussion of not doing backups.

Let us know if we can be of further help.