Problem recovering saved profile files

I am having a problem recovering e-mail files saved to a CD before upgrading.

Here is what I did. I copied the entire "Application Data" file, including the "Mozilla" folder with the "Profiles" folder and all of its files to a CD using the application Roxio Easy Media Creater 8.

I was able to recover the files with e-mail messages from the \Applications Data\...\Mail\Local Folders without a problem.

However, when I try to move files from the pop.xxx.com files, I get several error messages, depending on which files from the CD that I try to move back to my hard disk from the CD in the CD drive. The messages are such as
"Cannot copy file name "
"Cannot read from the source file or disk "
"Cannot copy file name. The parameter is incorrect. "

At this point I am not sure if the problem is with the file formats on the CD, written with the Roxio application, or due to some protection or attribute that may be associated with the files within the folder \pop.xxx.com\, due to how they were created by the old Netscape browser.

Since I can copy some of the files frrom the CD, such as the files from the "Local Folders" folder, I do not expect it is due to the manner the files were written to the CD.

Are there any attributes for the files within the \pop.xxx.com\ or \pop.xxx-1.com\ folders that might be preventing the recovery of these files?

I am just trying to move them from the CD to my HD, before renaming them for insertion into the new MAIL folder in the new Mozilla browser I have installed.

I saved a large number of e-mails, such as from the Inbox and Sent folders, that are now only on the CD. I would appreciate any suggestions as to how to recover these and be able to include them in the new Profile so that I can access them. They were written to CD because I had to reformat and reload the operating system, Windows XP, to replace Windows ME, due to problems.

 

Welcome to the Forum, tberry!

tberry,

Right click the files you are trying to move, and select: Properties
Scroll to the bottom of the Properties window to: Attributes
If "Read Only" is checked, then remove the tick beside "Read Only "

It's a good idea to zip the files before saving to CD, which stops the Read Only file attribute from being changed.

You might be interested in this: Archive & Access Mail on CD

 

Re Problem recovering saved profile files

Ramona,
Thank you for the reply and suggestion. However, I had tried that method of changing the attributes of the folders and files on the CD from the Applications Data folder.

Since I am a bit of a novice with using my CD writing program, I was not sure if the attributes of a file on a CD-R disk, once written, could have their attributes changed. Making the change via the "Properties" option seems to work for the folders that are subfolders in the Application Data folder saved on the CD. At least I do not get an error when I change the read-only attribute on the Properties menu for a folder.

But when I try to change the attributes of a file at the lowest level, such as
for one of the files within the \pop.xxx.com\ folder, I get an error message as follows

Error Applying Attributes
An error occurred applying attributes to the file; F:\App...Data\Mozilla\...\pop.xxx.com\FILE-NAME where FILE-NAME is any of the folders such as Inbox, Sent, or Drafts without the .msf extension. I also have the same result if I try to change the attributes of any of the individual files in the xxxxxx.slt folder.

I am not sure the change of a folder's attribute is working, however, because after making this change by deselecting the Read-Only box, and not getting an error after doing it, if I then go back to the same folder, select its properties again, and look at the attributes, I find that the Read-Only box is still selected.

Somehow it does not seem correct to be able to change the attributes of a file already written on a CD-R, unless this is done as part of moving the file to another storage location and changing the attributes as that is done. However, the Catch 22 seems to be that I can not copy or move the files from the CD, and change their attributes, because I am not able to access them on the CD.

I did not zip the files before I wrote them to the CD, but I did, I think, select the option to make the files readable from any PC. The fact that I can open other files on the CD, not in the \Applications Data\ folder and not associated with the Mozilla\Netscape application, makes me think it is something about these files from Mozilla/Netscape, rather than how they were written to the CD that is the problem. I have a lot of other files that were written to the CD as part of the same operation that I am able to open or copy without any problem.

In addition, I was able to copy the files from the \Applications Data\Mozilla\...\Mail\Local Folders\(file name) from the CD to the hard disk and then to paste them in the new Local Folders folder and am able to read them.

Is there possibly another method to recover or copy these files from the CD? Thanks for any advice.
Tberry

 

No, they obviously can't and I get the same error! However, I find that using one of my own Mail backups on CD-R that I have no problem copying a single file, i.e., Inbox, Sent, etc., to the HDD. I can also copy the entire Mozilla folder from the CD-R to the HDD. Have you tried copying the entire Applications Data Profile to your HDD?

These files weren't zipped, as I made these backups quite some time ago, probably before I knew to Zip them.

If you are able to copy any of the files to your HDD, then once copied, open the files in Wordpad. If you can open them, then it won't be necessary to change the file attributes.

However, if the files aren't readable, and if you do change the file attribute, remember to enable "Archive ", once you disable Read Only.