Netscape 7.2 missing email inbox, accounts and settings.

Unfortunately I had to send my computer to a local "shop "when my modem failed. Upon return the shop had installed windows xp, copied my c drive to d drive and loaded their own programs.

It has taken a week to sort our their illegal programs, obtian new licenses for all the programs even though the old programs were legal but it is faster to obtain new ones than go through the replacement hassles, and then I discovered that my mail (I use netscape 7.2 mail) was not there? Have over ten years of carefully saved emails, addresses and bookmarks now all lost. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Capt.

 

Welcome to the Forum captwstewart!

Captain Stewart,

Shall I assume that when you access Netscape 7.2 on the D: drive, Netscape opened, but the Mail Wizard popped up demanding that you create new Accounts?

This happens frequently when Netscape crashes, a new OS is installed, etc. You said that you had saved 10 years of Mail. Saved where? If you have a backup of your Profile folder, or Mail folder, then you can replace the existing folders with the backup...

If you can give us more detail, it will be much easier to help with your Mail. If the Mail is still on the HDD, or you backed up to CD, or other storage media, it can be saved, but if not, I'm afraid it may not be possible...

 

Thank you for your reply. The saved netscape is located on d: drive. The newly installed netscape is on the now c: drive. I had made a back up through windows but because one was on windows 98 the new xp would not restore? There appears to be multiple netscape folder on d: drive and the path shows that there is a sub folder in the d: drive with netscape/netscape at the heading. Feel like a bit of a fool over all this.
Capt.

 

Capt.,

Please don't feel foolish, as it has happened to us all at one time or another...

O.K., Look here on the D: drive (Windows 98?) for your saved Profile:
C:\Windows\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles

Copy the "Profiles" folder to this location on the C: drive (Windows XP):
C:\Documents and Settings\user_name\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles

This will replace the existing Profiles folder on the C: drive, which should contain all the original profile data, including Mail.

If you already have Profile Data in the new installation of Netscape on the C: drive, then do this:
Rename the existing Profiles folder to: XProfiles

Once you have copied the original Profiles folder from the D: drive to the C: drive, then you can copy any new data to the original Profiles folder. After which you will want to delete the XProfiles folder.

Next: edit your Netscape Desktop shortcut to include the original Profile name.
Right click the shortcut and select: Properties
Click on the Shortcut Tab
To the existing path, add one space, and then -p yourprofilename
The path should be similar to this:
"C:\Program Files\Netscape\Netscape\Netscp.exe" -p yourprofilename

 

Will give it a try and let you know. Thank you very much.
Capt.

 

My pleasure!

 

Did a file search came up empty. A bit more red faced now as I only took the shop's word that they had copied the c: drive. Looks like they attempted to find all the data and put that in a folder under d: drive and named it c

Search produced no matches for any of the suggestions you gave. Methinks they have me defeated on this one.

 

Capt.,

Would you confirm that the D: drive is still Windows 98, please. If not, then the Profile data is hidden on Windows XP:

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.

To search for files in the Application Data folder, go to Start | Search.
Under More Advanced Options select Search system folders, Search
Hidden Files and folders, and Search subfolders.

 

Sorry this has taken so long to reply but with the 12 hours time difference and my `18 hour work days it gets a bit hectic.

D drive has indeed been changed to xp. I did find some files that were tagged as snm or that is what I think it was but had to stop and go back to work. Can you tell me what the tag would be on the files I am trying to locate? Have already been able to recover the .doc, .wpd, .jpg, .tiff etc. that I am familar with but the netscape------excapes me (pun intended). Thanks.
Capt.

 

Capt.,

If you are looking for the Profiles folder on the D: drive, then you should be looking here:
C:\Documents and Settings\user_name\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles

Your bookmarks.html, abook.mab files, and the Mail folder, will be found in your *.slt (salted) folder here:
C:\Documents and Settings\user_name\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\profilename\xxxxxxxx.slt

Files with the SNM extension are Netscape 4.xx Messenger mail header files. The Netscape 7.2 mail header files are the files with the MSF extension.

So-- before replacing the existing Profiles folder on the C: drive, with the original Profile on the D: drive:

Compact the Mail Folders, and clear the History
Next:
Close Netscape, and open Windows Explorer
Open the Netscape Mail folder, and delete the MSF files, leaving only the files without the MSF extension, e.g., Inbox, Drafts, Templates, Sent, etc. Also delete the Cache folder, and the XUL.mfl.

Do this for each Profile.

Now the Profiles folder is ready to replace the Profile on the C: drive.

 

Thank you. Will give it a try.
Regards,
Capt.

 

Some progress. Have found the files on both d: drive and c: drive but with different dates and memory amounts. Also when I sent the machine to the shop I was not completely foolish and made a back up of netscape but it was under windows 98 when the machine came back I assumed it was useless. Tried to use the restore on one of the other older machines in my house but when I used it to restore netscape in that machine it still came up without anything in the mailboxes, accounts etc.. One of the .slt files (with a 572jfnzw.slt name) as 1.67 mb.. One of the other .slt folders has the name of 6c8qh8ug.slt and it has 465 kb on it. There are a total of 7 .slt folders on the two drives. This perhaps is my fault as I was trying to panic and save older backups.

So it looks like the data is indeed there its just I am a bit too thick to get at it so it is useful. Can communication be direct via my email since you are a member of staff?
Regards,
Capt.

 

Not so my friend. What you can do is use the 98 backup by copying the Windows 98 Profiles folder, and then paste it into the Windows XP Mozilla folder, located here:
C:\Documents and Settings\WinXP_profile_name\Application Data\Mozilla

First:
Rename the existing Profiles folder on the C: drive to: XProfiles
Now: copy the Windows 98 Profiles backup folder to the Mozilla folder

Start Netscape, and all Profile data should be intact.

Once this is done, then you can copy any Mail received since the upgrade to XP to the backup which replaced the existing Profiles folder. If you have numerous *.slt folders, then you can consolidate any data into the *.slt folder in the Windows 98 backup Profiles folder.

I will more than happy to walk you through this when you're ready.

I get many questions asking the same things, so that's one of the reasons Arie, our Administrator, has set up the Netscape and Mozilla Forum. If I answered you privately, or solved the problem privately, it wouldn't benefit anyone but you. By helping you on the Forum, everyone in a similar situation will benefit.

Regards,

 

Fair enough. I just assumed (yes I know what happens when we assume) no one else would have been this shall we say if not foolish then perhaps inept?

 

Ah, Capt., you are so wrong! You would be amazed at how many of us have been down that road, so please don't feel foolish, or be embarrassed. It happens, but usually only once...

 

Thanks for the positive encouragement. Just had a power outage so now everything is back booted up and I have both machines booted up and running.

Will try to keep everything together long enough to give this a try.
Thank you.

 

Do I still have to go through with the "compacting" first? Whcih "profile "do I do this with as it seams I must have created several in my layman's attempt to save data? Should I just check the properties and get the correct or latest date that I recognize as a good date?

Might be some very slow walking through this procedure.

 

Don't worry about the compacting now. Follow the above procedure and copy the backed up Profile which has the most current dates, which can be verified by not only viewing the *.slt files, but also looking at the last message in your Inbox file (without the MSF extension). Since the 572jfnzw.slt has 1.67 MB, it seems logical it would be the original, but if there are more than two Profiles, then you will have to look at each one before deciding which is the most current. When the decision is made, then that is the profile to copy, and paste into the Mozilla folder on the C: drive.

Don't worry about consolidating data now, the main focus now is to move the Windows 98 Profiles folder to the Mozilla folder on C:.

Let me know tomorrow if you have further questions. It is quite late in my part of the country, and I'm ready to hit the sack!

 

Unfortuantely it didn't work. I did get my bookmarks back but not sure if it was from a year or so ago or the most recent. Email and accounts we still just the same as before.
Capt.

 

Capt.,

Your Mail folder has nothing in it, i.e., the Inbox, etc., shows 0 KB?

Are you positive that you selected the most current Profile from the backup on D:? To ensure the Profile is the most current, you can look at the dates of the files in your *.slt folder, e.g., prefs.js, or localstore.rdf, panacea.dat.