SillyDog701

[Brigitte Rhinehart]

I accidentally deleted a folder to which I move messsages I want to keep, it is in the " Local Folder ". When I did not find it in the recycle bin, I used the search function and found it somewhere on the hard drive, I believe it has the extension .msf or .mfs
When I open it in Netscape, it comes up as one huge page, with lots of garbeled stuff, however, I can read some of the addresses and that's how I know it's the file I deleted.
My question is:
- can this folder be restored to its original presentation, i.e. into individual messages and if so, how is this done
- if it can be restored, how do I move it back to the Local Folder in NS
Any advice is appreciated!

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[Fulvio]

.msf files are the header files, and, if associated with a similar file with no extention, will allow the user to read the mail, provided it is of the correct format. If you deleted the folder, it should be gone, but the equivalent file should be available. I don't know why people use the Local Folders, when it is so much easier to create a subfolder of the Inbox, but each folder is represented by an equivalent file and its header file. So, you may still have, in your Local folders, a , let's say Brigitte and Brigette.msf.
The .msf file is disposable, but the other file should still be available, if you create a folder in your program.

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[Brigitte Rhinehart]

Thanks, Fulvio, but I am lost here.. all the files (they are called BR misc) coming up in search have the .msf attachment, one is a folder with the attachment .sbd but it is empty, i.e. there is no file BR misc without an attachment.
Also, I am not understanding what you mean with
"The .msf file is disposable, but the other file should still be available, if you create a folder in your program."
Thanks for your patience!

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[Fulvio]

I tested this in Thunderbird, creating a folder in Local Folders, which I called Test. I then moved into it some Spam (so no loss if it would not work!), and copied some other message. Then I deleted the Folder, which became a subfolder of Trash. When I went back to the hard drive there was a Trash.sbd which contained my files. I dragged and dropped the file with no extention into Local Folders folder, and when I opened TB again, the folder was back (I ignored the .msf file, a new one was created). Finally, I set my preferences to empty on exiting, and I compacted to boot. After doing that the Trash.sbd folder was gone, and so were the other files. So, it is possible that you may be able to retrieve the folder if the there is a Trash.sbd folder, but, forget about it if you compacted. For the future, I would create a subfolder of the Inbox, or just a folder within the account.

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[Brigitte Rhinehart]

Thanks, Fulvio. I deleted the folder and then deleted it once it showed up in the Trash folder. Does that mean that it is gone for good?

I searched the hard drive for Trash files and it came up with 50, more than half with the .msf attachment. I tried to access some of the files with a lot of content and without an attachment through NS but it does not let me do this, I assume it's an MS problem.

What now?

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[Brigitte Rhinehart]

I have 5 Trash.sbd file folders but it says "File folder is empty", they were all modified on the same day. I also have numerous Trash files without extentions, one has 207 MB and may be the one with the missing files in it. However, I cannot open it in NS, it always freezes up.

I know how to create a folder in Local Folders in NS but I don't know how to drag and drop the no extension file from the search page to the Local Folder in NS. I did not compact, I don't know how to do this, either..

Thanks for any help.

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[Fulvio]

Brigitte,
the only possible place would be the Trash file with 207 MB, which tells me that you have not been compacting folders. However, you see the individual Trash messages, and right click|move to Inbox. I have done this repeatedly. And, if an entire folder ended up in the Trash, I could move out to any folder all the included messages. I would hesitate doing any other way, since although you have a large file which may have been deleted, you cannot tell, for sure what's its content. Do you see any subfolder in your Trash files? I see a folder with the e-mail, and there is an equivalent set with its .msf file in trash.sbd.
So, you have to find the correct path to the 207 MB Trash folder first. But if all the Trash.sbd folders are empty, you are not looking at the correct stuff (you can right click on the file|open with Wordpad, and see what's in it)

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[Brigitte Rhinehart]

Hi Fulvio, I am really sorry but I still don't quite understand. How do I open the 207 MB Trash file? When I right click on it, I get a menu with "Open containing folder" at the top which then gets me to a site entitled pop.starband.nnet with no extension files on the left such as "Drafts, Inbox, Templates, Sent and Trash 212,446KB KB, on the right are the same files with .msf extension. There is also 1 .dat file each on the left and right.

Beside the Local Folder, I have 5 other mail boxes hence I really don't know which one of these boxes I am looking at. 2 of the boxes have additional folders, 3 just have the usual 5 folders.

What do I do now?

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[Fulvio]

Brigitte,
if you want to open the file, you right|Open(one line below what you did)|select your program|Wordpad.
Howvever, I think that you gave me some info already. Is your ISP, starband.net. What you need to establish is where is the large Trash folder located, in other words, does it make any sense?
Believe it or not, I just did what you did, also by mistake, clicking on the wrong line, and one of my Archive folders ended in the trash, but although I could not put it back where it was originally, I was able to move all the good stuff into another Archive folder. Unfortunately, I did not look on the hard drive, so I can't help. But, if I did not give you this link, try it:to restore deleted mail
But one had a very large amount of mail, while I had only a dozen.
I don't know how you ended losing your folder, but I had deleted some mail from mine, and, I always empty Trash, and then Compact Folder, which is one line away from Delete, and I paid no attention to what.
But, I could see the mail in the folder. If you don't, I am not so sure.

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[Brigitte Rhinehart]

Hi Fulvio, thanks for all your tips. Actually, the biggest folder was not the one I was looking for but I finally did find the right one. I was able to open it in Netscape but only the first message was legible, the rest was all garbled.

But, before I got to that point, I tried to open it in Wordpad and this threw the computer into a fit. It froze up and when I rebooted it, everything was so incredibly slow that I had not choice than to do a defragment and disk clean. I believe the defragment also compresses the files, so I am not sure if I have indeed lost the files that appear now garbled.

When you were talking about compressing the files, NS has a compacting function, is that what you meant? I never used this function, only the MS defragment. A friend told me that I should be able to recover these files but this is entirely above my pay grade, I will need to find someone knowledgeable about this stuff.

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