HELP ME PLEASE!
Problem:
I need to retrieve saved (sent) mail stored on Netscape 6.
History:
I was using Netscape 6 as my primary browser and for my e-mail. Switched to Opera browser. Netscape 6 mysteriously stopped working around the same time. Don’t know if the two were related, but it wasn’t a big deal, because I started using the mail client in Opera. Just to try it out, I also downloaded Netscape 7 (btw - nope, still love Opera). I can start up the mail client on Netscape 7, but it no longer has all my mail settings saved, ergo no saved e-mail. I can’t seem to access Netscape 6 directly through the folder (the start up screen flashes up, and then nothing happens).
I don’t know that much about how e-mail works. All I know is that I saved the e-mail while using Netscape 6, and I can no longer access Netscape 6, and I need that e-mail! And, of course, I can’t find the e-mail anywhere else. In case it’s not clear, it wasn’t on webmail - it was mailed retrieved from my cable internet provider mail.
Can anyone help me, please! Where would all this be saved? I mean, I hit “save draft”. It must be saved somewhere, right?
I’ve had this problem twice. New versions don’t seem to want to “adopt” the resident mail directories. Do a find for “netscape.exe” and see how many results you get back. If two, then you can probably still launch version 6 by clicking on the appropriate icon in the found results. If you can launch Netscape 6, the old mail directories should come along with it.
Netscape 7 probably didn’t overwrite the old mail folders, it just set up new empty ones in a new directory. The hard part will be finding the old Netscape 6 directory. Hopefully you’ll see both Netscape 6 and Netscape 7 in your Windows Explorer. If you accepted the default directories when it was installed, Netscape 6 organizes mail folders as follows:
C:\Program Files\Netscape\Users[username]\Mail
This may look a little different if you’ve set up multiple (or no) profiles. Each Netscape mailbox has two files to support it: an index file (with an extension of SNM) and a message-text file (with no extension). If the SENT file is all you’re after, and you don’t mind losing the SENT file for the Netscape 7 installation, just copy the SENT file from the Netscape 6 direcdtory into the location in the Netscape 7 directory. This assumes that you know how to manuver around your hard drives with the Windows Explorer and c&p files.
Another option is running a search (or find) for all folders named “sent”. I just did this and came up with three files named “sent” with no extension. I can easily identify the one with the data as being the largest one (1352KB). The others have just a few KB in them, I have no idea what they are.
So try copying (that’s COPY, not cut!) the biggest “sent” file you can find on your drive onto the desktop, then go hunting for the Netscape 7 sent file so you’ll know where to paste it. Then launch your Netscape 7 mail client and hopefully you’ll see your mail.
Thanks for the advice. My Netscape user mail folder shows as empty. A search for “sent” doesn’t bring up any Netscape files.
Where did they go?