Messed Up Address Book

Hi All,

For convenience I keep my Address Book as part of the Start menu, above Programs, Documents, etc. The last time I had occasion to use it was March of this year, it was fine. Today when I tried to open the Address Book all I got were lines of alphabet, numbers and some strange letter combinations somewhat randomly distributed. I also used some backup addresses that were on a floppy or a CD with the same results. The Address Book file has a WAB extension and contains 195 KB. The path is C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book.

To check further, I started a new Address Book and added information for one person. The path to this book is Start, Programs, Accessories to Address Book. This works fine but I'm wanting to get to the original which contains the important information. Does anyone have some wise words for me. Thank you.

 

It's possible that the .wab file has lost its proper association to the program that is supposed to open it. It is also possible that your PATH statement has changed and you are no longer able to open that type of file from its present location.

Try moving it to the root of your C: drive and see if it will open. If not, right-click it and select "Open With" and find Address Book on the menu and highlight it. Then tag the box labeled "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file." Then click OK.

If that works, you'll be all set. If it doesn't, the file is probably corrupt and not going to be of any value.

It would be a good idea to do a drive search for *.wab and see how many you find and if any can be opened.

You can also check the file association from the comand line. Click Start > Click Run > (type) cmd (press enter) (type) assoc.wab (press enter) and it should say:

.wab=wab_auto_file

 

surferdude2,

Starting with your last paragraph, the assoc.wab produces what you said it should, .wab=wab_auto_file. Next I did the search for *.wab (I had done this previously) none of the files with the .wab extension produce the Address Book. Neither did moving any of these to the C: drive. If I right click a .wab file and look for Address Book, it is not part of the usual list. I did a search of this forum and found a response by PeteC in 2004 about adding a program to the Open With list using TweakUIXP. Using My Computer> Autoplay> Handlers then Create I got as far as the Create screen and was not sure what information should go in there. If you can supply any further help, I would appreciate it. Thank you.

 

Repeat the Open With procedure and choose to Browse for the program. Then drill down to "C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\wab.exe" and select it. Tag the "Always use..." box and OK out. If you don't find wab.exe at that location, do a drive search for it. If it is not present anywhere, uninstall and reinstall Outlook Express from Control Panel > Windows Components.

EDIT: Don't forget to include *.wab~ in your quest. That's the name Outlook Express assigns to its backup copy of the Address Book.

 

superdude2,

In your last Post you brought up the extension .wab~. I did open that file, it uses Wordpad, and produced results that were many, many small rectangles which covered the screen in uniform lines. I also followed the instructions in your first paragraph (many times). The Address Book then becomes part of the 'Open With' list. The next time I went back to 'Open With', the Address Book notation was not there. The wab.exe file is part of C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\wab.exe.

When I try to open an address book I get the following:

Invalid command line parameters. ​

Run 'Wab.exe /? to see a list of command parameters.​

Following those instructions, I get a message that wab.exe /? cannot be found by Windows. There does not seem to be anything encouraging here. Thank you for your continued interest.

 

Try uninstalling Outlook Express and reinstalling it from Control Panel > Add Remove Programs > Add Remove Windows components.

BTW, I should have mentioned that to use the .wab~ file, you have to rename it to drop the tilde symbol. Then it will open with wab.exe as a normal Address Book unless it is corrupt also. There is a possibility that all of your old .wab files are corrupt and that reinstalling OE will do no good but we must try that first before making that determination.

 

surferdude2,

Thank you for the prompt reply. Outlook Express is not on the list for Add or Remove Programs so I can't uninstall it. When I go to the left panel and click on Add/Remove Windows Components OE is checked on that list but shows zero KB. I haven't done anything regarding your last paragraph, I'm feeling that Outlook Express needs further work but I'm not sure how to get there.

 

That's where I wanted you to go and uncheck it - let it uninstall and then reinstall it.

 

surferdude2,

OK, I went back to the Add/Remove Windows Components and tried removing the check mark for Outlook Express. I removed and rechecked it several times (also shutting down and restarting the computer) but still cannot get a decent looking Address Book. When I changed the name of .wab~ I got the characters similar to those described in my first post. Thank you for your patience and anytime you want to close this thread down, let me know.

 

No, we'll keep holding out hope. There are softwares available to recover these files so consider trying one of those. Some are $ and some are shareware. Try this one.

If no joy, do a Google for others.

 

Hi surferdude2

Well I tried some of the Google offerings with poor results. One asked for all the .dbx files, of which I have none, another simply brought up the single person Address Book that I mentioned earlier. I hesitate to spend thirty to seventy dollars on something that may or may not work.

In desperation I performed a System File Check with no improvement. What is your opinion of doing a Repair Install not with the idea of recovering the lost addresses but to get my system in order? I've more or less resigned myself to generating a new Address Book.

 

If you are having issues with your system that cannot easily be resolved by other methods, then a Repair Install over the existing system is worth the effort. You will lose your MS Updates and HotFixes depending on what version of install CD you have. That's a bit of trouble unless you have a broadband connection.

If your newly created Address book works normally, and you have no other major issues, I'd wait for some further justification before doing a Repair install.

I am concerned about what may have corrupted your .wab files though. I would advise running chkdsk /r and also doing a full disk check for Adware. Then do full disk scan for virus using your AV with the latest updated signatures and then do an online scan at Housecall. Somewhere along the way you may be able to correct something and avoid the Repair install.

Good luck.

 

Hi surferdude2,

Got It!!!
Your persistence paid off. I was about to start making a new Address Book but decided to look once more at the backed=up floppy mentioned in my first post. Whether the System File Check improved some files, I don't know. When I imported the floppy files and used the ....... \Outlook Express\wab.exe, the Address Book opened up.

Thank you again for all your support. This is not the first time you helped me and I appreciate it.

 

[SIZE= "4"]VOILA![/SIZE] I knew you had the right stuff all along. Nice going. Thanks for the kind words and for posting back your results so others can benefit.

Dude