| Author |
Message |
RJ Long (Rjlong) (24.127.74.29)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 22, 2003 - 1:30 am: | |
Need some assitance from fellow computer users, as well as fellow BusNuts!
Current computer is an HP 800MHz running WinME, IE 6.0 and OE for email. (I know, I know, I should dump ME, IE & OE, but that is exactly the reason for this post!) System has become extremely unstable, unable to work for more than 15-20 minutes before unit locks up, and has to be cold-booted.
Both of my brothers-in-law (one a software guy at Intel, the other a software guy at IBM) recommend backing up my data files (already done - learned that 20 years ago!!), reformatting the hard drive and installing XP Professional, especially since my unit is the server for our home network. OK, I don't have a problem with that. It's a lot of work, but no worse than other projects I've tackled.
The real question for everyone is this: I have over 3,000 saved messages in OE, primarily related to bus conversions, chassis info, RV systems, family mail, business mail, etc. When I bought this machine, I never could figure out how to copy my OE messages from the old machine to this one, and now I'm facing a similar situation. I cannot seem to find where OE saves all this data, let alone copy it from here to there. Forget the OE help screens, they're useless for this. And I don't have time to "cut & paste" all of them into a word processing program. . .
Suggestions, BTDTs, etc. are VERY welcome! Feel free to email direct: rjlong at attbi dot com, rather than clutter up the bbs. Will post results when project's completed. . .
Thanks, everyone!
RJ
PD4106-2784
Fresno CA |
Peter Broadribb (Madbrit) (65.37.91.188)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 22, 2003 - 1:52 am: | |
RJ,
I saved all the files in OE using a free/shareware program called "e-Backup" which does a complete copy of all the contents of OE including your address book. I hide the copy of my OE in my "D" drive which is a partitioned section of the regular hard drive.
Go to: http://www.inachis.com/products/index.htm
My older version was a freebe when I got it. This is a 90 day evaluation copy 1.4 version, I am still using the 1.0 version and it copes with 534 meg of email and both the older and the new versions are designed for exactly what you are intending to do.
Failing this, have you tried the "Import/Export" options under the "file" tab in OE? Just import it to another storage media and then export it back after your reformat.
Peter. |
Michael J (Mjryan) (67.41.234.82)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 22, 2003 - 3:16 am: | |
RJ,
I use e-Backup from inachis and I think it is great and it will do what you want, the import/export on OE will only move to another Microsoft program not what you want. Also if you are going to install Windows XP it is very forgiving and will accept most of your current software if you insist on it.
Michael j |
Jack Perry (Jpwinks) (68.71.200.180)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 22, 2003 - 8:53 am: | |
RJ,
The information that you have so far is a good start, as long as your going to "start over" you may as well do it thoroughly and do it once. Who wants to go through this more than once? Here is what I would recommend...
1) Back-up data, there are many ways to accomplish this, if you are not familiar with hidden files, OS architecture, and/or db/network administration I would suggest a 3rd party utility as was recommended to you by other posters in this ng.
2) WRITE ZEROS to your hard drive. Formating and Fdisking will NOT, I repeat, NOT remove any corruption in that exists in the boot sector, and...formatting does NOT obliterate data. This means that if you go through all the motions and eliminate this step you could still have anomolies after spending 6 or 8 hrs. "starting over". I suggest that you find out the manufacturer of your HDD and go to their site and get the ZERO utility...it's FREE. This is a very simple process, if you need help, call or ping me and I will be glad to walk you through it.
3) Format the HDD.
4) Partition the HDD.
5) Install OS of your choice, if it's going to be XP make sure it's XP PRO.
6) Go to OS update site and update all service packs and security fixes BEFORE you do anything else.
7) Install Appz.
8) Update Appz.
9) Import the data that you backed up in step 1.
10)Happy computing.
jpwinks. |
JD-Crown.GA (66.32.125.68)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 22, 2003 - 10:39 am: | |
OK, here's the long way to save the email data if you don't have any of those freebie utilities: This is what I do for a living, so I do this a lot. Not to say this is the only way.
Before you reload, go into outlook express and go into the address book. Hit "file", then export. Export the address book as a ".wab" file and put it in the root directory, or somewhere you can find it later. Next is the messages. In ME, the messages are located in what's called a "store folder" and is located in c:\windows\application data\identities\(bunch of charac.)\microsoft\outlook express
The bunch of charac. folder is just that. Mine will look different than yours, just know its letters and numbers. Note, you MAY have more than one. If so, right click on the folder and go to "properties". The one that's largest is usually the correct one. Anyway, copy the "Outlook Express" folder in its entirety to another location, such as another hard drive, CDR, or 2nd partition.
When bringing the data back in, Set up the email as you would after a reload. Go to "file", then "import". Import the address book. Then go to "file", "import" and choose to import messages. Import from OE6. Then choose to Import from an OE6 Store File. Browse to the "Outlook Express" folder you previously saved in its entirety. This should take care of it!
I know it's long, but I had to do this very procedure several times last week. I hope this helps.
Jim |
Scott Whitney (66.82.9.35)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 22, 2003 - 1:17 pm: | |
BTW, RJ,
If you haven't considered it, it might be a good time to add a second HD to your system. I like to keep a small HD dedicated to the OS - and nothing else. Then second or third drive to hold all you apps and data. Makes backing up easier and if you need to resintall your OS sometime in the future, all your data is physcially segregated from the OS. Drives are soooo cheap these days, it is a nice way to set up a system.
Scott |
Larry Goodhew (Lgoodhew) (148.78.249.32)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, February 24, 2003 - 12:06 am: | |
I would encourage the second harddrive idea as well. I always set my system up with just the OS and applications on the C: drive/partition and data on other partitions or drives. Another performance enhancment if you are starting over from scratch, is to make a couple of smaller partitions for scratch drives. I make one for my internet files and one for my photo editing applications. I usually make them 1gig each. The internet one especially will save a lot of fragmentation on your C: drive. It can really help the OS run faster.
Also, here is a link to a page that tells you quite a bit about getting your data out of outlook.
http://www.techweb.com/winmag//fixes/2001/05.htm
If you want to change email programs, I really like Pegasus Mail for staying away from email problems. It doesn't suffer from all of the virus problems of Outlook, it is free, and you can teach it pretty good rules for moving your incoming emails into the appropriate places.
hth,
Larry Goodhew |
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