SillyDog701

[MartinC]

I used to have Netscape Navigator (way back in the olden times) and its attendant email client, and I had lots of emails on it. In 2002, I upgraded my computer but copied the old comp's files along to the new comp. I then switched to Communicator (importing all my old email history from Navigator) and used it until about 2004. Again, I upgraded computers and dumped the entire contents of the old computer into a multi-gig second disk drive on the new computer. I don't know specifically where the programs or data are stored though.

I am now trying to find the old emails from Navigator and Communicator, to reconstruct some writing I did in those times. I managed to find the Navigator files (the OLDER ones) and have set up Navigator to run so I could access them. So I have all the files up to 2002. But my problem is I can't find the Communicator ones (2002-2004). I found the Navigator ones by searching for the name of a folder I remembered I had set up: Navigator had a textfile named for each folder of stored emails. However that search did not reveal any Communicator files, which definitely had the same visible folder structure and names.

I am hoping that Communicator used a different system to store emails and that someone can help me find the email repository: I have Google Desktop to find things easily by brute force search. I'd really like to know the structure/method Communicator used to store emails, ideally with a searchable NAME for the file they might be in. Any ideas, anyone?

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.8) Gecko/20071008 Firefox/2.0.0.8

[profman]

What versions of Netscape are you talking about? Is it just the 4.x versions, or is it also the 6.x or 7.x versions?

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20050915

[MartinC]

I can't be certain but I think it was just the 4.x versions ... I started using it in 2002, and stopped using it in September 2004 (went to Gmail), so it can't be any version later than that.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.8) Gecko/20071008 Firefox/2.0.0.8

[PaulD]

I have an archive of 4.80. My structure on a Windows 95 system seems to have been:
\Program Files\Netscape\Users\profile-name\Mail\mail-folder-names.

mail-folder-names are the standard ones: inbox, Drafts, Templates, Sent, Trash, Unsent Messages (not necessarily in this order). In addition, there will be whatever mail folders you created as you organized your emails. Note that each NS mail folder, which is a collection of emails, is an OS file. And each NS mail folder / OS file has the name with no extention, as indicated above. (These files are primarily textual; any graphical or otherwise binary data attachments are in a form that was encoded-as-text for transmission.)

Accompanying each file is another file which has the same name, but with an extention of .snm. This is a Netscape mail summary file that has meaning only to NS (useless to an editor).

My Netscape.exe 4.80 has a date of July 2002.

I'm not sure that this answered your questions, however. Please clarify if necessary.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.12) Gecko/20070508 Firefox/1.5.0.12

[MartinC]

PaulD, you have answered my question in all the detail I could want, though unfortunately it sounds as though your answer rules out any chance the data I want might still be there: I have done several searches for Folder names which should have turned up hits if the structure is as you say. On the weekend I will try a search for “.snmâ€

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.8) Gecko/20071008 Firefox/2.0.0.8

[PaulD]

Is there any remote chance that you saved separately someplace else your ...\mail folder with all its email files? Perhaps in a zipped format? Or a CD? You might have done so just-in-case you might want them in the future. (And the future has done arrived!)

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.12) Gecko/20070508 Firefox/1.5.0.12

[MartinC]

Paul: No, unfortunately I wasn’t that organised. I never really shut down Communicator, I just started using Gmail, and changed ISPs at the same time. And I always knew I had all the old apps and their data sitting on that drive … or thought I did.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.8) Gecko/20071008 Firefox/2.0.0.8

[MartinC]

Well, I tried the search for *.snm and found an even OLDER version of Netscape (I had unhelpfully changed the directory name to "net" so it escaped the earlier searches for "Netscape"). All its material had been transferred to the other Netscape however. I did not find any newer version of Netscape so it appears I must have somehow deleted it, which is a great pity. Anyway thanks for all your help.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.8) Gecko/20071008 Firefox/2.0.0.8

[PaulD]

I'm sorry that you have lost all those good compositions. They've gone to that great bit-bucket in the sky.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.12) Gecko/20070508 Firefox/1.5.0.12

[MartinC]

Actually I can find most of what I was looking for one way or another; it is just slow. The email I was particularly looking for was a constantly-amended draft which consisted of all the palindromes I ever wrote ... but they all got emailed to www.mockok.com at some time anyway; I can just sort through there for all the #260s.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.8) Gecko/20071008 Firefox/2.0.0.8

[PaulD]

And you've done a DIR \pal*.* /s /a (and/or similar file-id-roots) to ferret out any possible 'saved-just-in-case-and-I'll-never-forget-the-name' files.

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