SillyDog701

[eager to learn]

I'm trying to locate my Inbox of e-mails that was in Netscape Messenger which was the built in e-mail program for Netscape 4.6, 4.7, 4.8 and 4.9

I've searched all over my hard drive and can't seem to find it.

I've been using Mozilla TB for about 3 years.

I seem to recall that the Netscape Messenger e-mail Inbox is buried in some long directory like ...

C:\Documents and Settings\User Account\Application Data\Something???\Something else\Something else again???\default\Something else again??\Mail

Does anyone recall the *exact* folder or directory that Netscape kept it's Messenger Inbox of e-mails?

I've tried both Windows Explorer (XP Pro) and WordPerfect 8.0 searches.

Thanks so much.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.14) Gecko/2009082707 Firefox/3.0.14

[Don_HH2K]

Communicator 4.x kept its profile data stored local with the application. If you didn't change your installation directory, your Communicator profile data (and with it your Messenger inbox) is most likely located in [tt]c:\Program Files\Netscape\Users[/tt].

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1 x64; en-US; rv:1.9.3a1pre) Gecko/20091008 Minefield/3.7a1pre

[eager to learn]

Hi Don,

When I go into C:\Program Files\Netscape\Users\default\Mail the Inbox is only 16KB

This Inbox should have something like 48,000 pages - it's a very large file.

Any other place it might be found?

Thanks so muc.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.14) Gecko/2009082707 Firefox/3.0.14

[PaulD]

Don is right on with his location. And it appears that you are looking in the correct default location.
1. Have you done an Explorer Search for [ mail* ], or [ inbox* ]?
2. Try a Search for [ *.snm ].
3. Perchance did you at some time archive the old Mail off to another medium - internal or external disk, CD, USB memory?
4. Do you have other mail folders there: Drafts, Sent, Templates, Trash?
5. That 16K is the size of a .snm when the associated mail folder is empty. A valid snm is smaller (or larger if the mail folder is large).
6. Perhaps when you converted to Thunderbird you copied over the NS 4 mail, but with other folder names? Or maybe as TB mail subfolder(s)?

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[eager to learn]

Hi Paul,

I did a back up of the hard drive about a year ago by dragging over all my folders, etc. to a DVD but didn't find the Netscape Messenger Inbox or any other boxes on that DVD.

I then had to clean sweep the hard drive and dragged everything from that DVD back over to the hard drive.

On the hard drive I can see Inbox whose file size is zero but the Inbox.smn has 16KB which is also the case with Sent, Sent.smn, Drafts, Drafts.smn, and Trash, Trash.smn.

This is a reminder about how helpful a mirror image of the drive would be much more helpful and easier. I'm considering buying an internal hard drive, encasing it so it 's an external hard drive so I can mirror image my desktop hard drive.

Thank for all your help.

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[Fulvio]

Zero KB Inbox means that there is nothing there. I have no idea what could have happened if the Inbox of the Users folder is empty. Ideally, one should not drag and drop the folders (same as Cut and Paste), but rather Copy and Paste. The original folders can be removed later.
I am using an external drive for backup.

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[eager to learn]

Hi Fulvio,

I think hard disk imaging is the way to go. You can migrate everything (e.g. settings, e-mail) back exactly as it was.

What disk imaging software do you use?

I'm thinking of buying an internal hard drive, encasing it and truing it into an external hard drive for disk imaging.

I've search each and every partition of the hard drive (all 7) as well as 2 flash drives and a couple of back up DVDs. I'm not exactly sure what happened to the Netscape Messenger Inbox. I rarely need it except for very old e-mail and addresses but it may be the only place I have that info.

Thanks so much.

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[PaulD]

"I did a back up ... by dragging over all my folders, etc. ...."
Did 'all my folders' include \Program Files\Netscape\...\Mail ? Netscape architecture started back in the era of DOS, and it was common for data files to be located, logically, with the driving programs. You may have overlooked the NS mail because it was not mentally associated with data storage.

"On the hard drive I can see [empty mail folders and their 16K .snm's]."
These would have been created when you opened up NS again.

Speculation: Perhaps also you may have at some time inadvertently created a new NS profile and deleted the old one. This could have been during an upgrade of NS - uninstall / reinstall.

Re: New internal drive + enclosure = External drive
You don't want to get an 'true' external drive because you may at some time want to actually install the drive internally? My suggestion is to get a real external drive: that way you know that there is no integration / compatibility issue. Or does disk imaging (I'm not familiar with the requirements) exclude USB and requires a PATA or SATA attachment? Or do you have an external SATA port?

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