A brand new but faulty DVD+/-RW drive caused a major system crash. We
were running a Pentium III 800 MHz processor, 10 GB HD, Windows 98 SE
with Outlook Express 6.0, and the usual hardware(CD ROM drive, 3.5"
floppy drive, etc.). Almost everything fried when the power supply
blew, but we managed to "clone" the HD by using a different controller
board and different computer. We then rebuilt the whole computer with
an ASUS P4XP-X motherboard, 2.40 BGHz Pentium IV chipset, 512 DDR/33,
Maxtor 40 GB HD, V.92 fax modem, Sniper 2 graphics card (I think it's
a GeForce AGP with 32 MB), and new everything else. The computer is
used strictly for business (wp, e-mails with lots of attachments,
invoices, filing of documents, etc.) so we probably will upgrade this
rather inappropriate, but cheap, graphics card. We transferred all
the data from the cloned HD into a file called "Backup" on the new 40
GB C: drive. THE PROBLEM CONCERNS HOW TO REINSTALL THE OE6 FILES,
PARTICULARLY THE INBOX AND SENT ITEMS FILES, INTO THE OUTLOOK EXPRESS
6.0 ON THE REBUILT MACHINE! Here's what I tried and what happened: I
searched the "Backup" folder using *.dbx, then copied the 19 .dbx
files that I found to a new folder, "C:\dbx backup". I then examined
each file to see that "Read Only" was unchecked and that "Archive" was
checked. I then opened OE6 on the rebuilt computer and did File >
Import > Messages. I selected "MS OE6" as the e-mail program to
import from. I then browsed and displayed "C:\dbx backup" as the
location where the messages are stored. I selected "Import mail from
an OE6 identity". "C:\dbx backup" was listed. I then selected "All
folders" (deleted items, drafts, inbox, outbox, sent items). The
routine ran and said "your data from MS OE6 was successfully imported
into Outlook Express", but the process was very fast (almost
instantaneous) and those 19 files consist of 45,129,020 bytes! I
rebooted and opened OE6, but these files are not installed. I am not
a very skilled computer user, so please provide clear and specific
instructions on what to do to transfer these files into the OE6 on the
rebuilt machine. There is a great deal of business info. in these
files that we need, especially in the inbox and sent item stuff. Help! |
Request for Question Clarification by
aht-ga
on
19 Aug 2003 17:24 PDT
frank2-ga:
The answer to this problem is not an easy one, so I'm going to start
by asking you to do several things as a Clarification to your
Question, instead of providing an Answer immediately that would
obligate you without necessarily solving your problem.
I have had the misfortune myself of having to reinstall my operating
system (Windows 2000 in my case) several times over the last two
months, and each time I have had to recover my old mail folders. This
is how I do it, as the Import Wizard is not very reliable (as you've
already found out).
First, I hope that you do not have any new mail downloaded already in
your "new" Outlook Express 6 installation. If you do, then the first
thing you need to do is locate your OE6 message store location
(Tools>Options>Maintenance>Store Folder), and back it up to a new
location.
Now, open up a File Explorer window, and go to the folder in your
C:\Backup folder where you found the dbx files, most likely it is
"C:\Backup\Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook Express" (or
"C:\Backup\Windows\Profiles\<username>\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook Express"). Select the folder itself (ie. the
"Outlook Express" folder), copy it, then go to where your current
message store is located (probably "C:\Windows\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook Express") and paste the old folder over top of
the current message store (in other words, go to
"C:\Windows\Application Data\Microsoft" and paste the 'old' Outlook
Express folder over top of the 'new' Outlook Express folder). Make
sure that there is a "Folders.dbx" file in that copied data, that's
the master file. Without it, OE6 won't know to look for the other dbx
files.
In OE6, set up your e-mail accounts again, it's actually easier to
just set them up from scratch using Tools>Accounts...
Next, run the address book import wizard (File>Import>Address Book...)
and go to "C:\Backup\Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book"
to find your old address book (or, again, it may be in
"C:\Backup\Windows\Profiles\<username>\Application
Data\Microsoft\Address Book") and import it.
At this point, with the exception of your Message Rules (which again
are best set up from scratch again), you should be back in business.
Please let me know if this works for you, I don't want to post it as
the Answer until I know for sure that it has solved your problem for
you.
Thanks,
aht-ga
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