Any way to recover all my email history, not just the 15 or so currently in my Inbox? I may have to completely reformat my C: drive, and I will lose all my email files --- has registration numbers for all my software products, etc.
Yes, assuming you can still access/use the machine.
What email client are you using? If t is Outlook Express, Outlook, Windows Mail, they all have a way starting with Tools to find the storage folder(s) for all of your emails. The easiest thing to do is just follow the path to find the store, then use that info to navigate Windows Explorer to the folder and then copy the entire folder to a flash drive or a CD. Once you have reinstalled , if you wind up having to, you can then verify the store location on the new image and copy all of the folders back.
If you are using some other email client I feel sure that it will have some way to determine where the emails are stored, but I don't know where you would fine the information.
If you are using Outlook Express, there is an old free program called OE Quick Backup that will save all of your information (account(s), Address Book, and folders) to a folder which you can then copy as I described above, and when you are ready you can use the same tool to set everything back up. Despite it being an old program, it will work with the most current levels of OE. Link for OE Quick Backup: http://www.oehelp.com/oebackup/default.aspx
Hope this helps (and I hope you don't have to reformat and re-install, can really take some time and effort)
__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
QIP6416-P1, IMG 1.7C, Build 09.83
Keller, TX 76248
In addition to what Justin said.
If you do manage to back up your Email to a flash drive or other media. Be sure to have GOOD antivirus software active prior to using the media that was connected to your infected box. The virus could have come in via an Email or the virus could spread to the media during the backup process.
Here is the path for Outlook on a Vista box. But it would depend on the operating system and Email client.
C:\Users\me\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook
One more thing you may wish to do. Start with a Clean hard drive. Good time for an upgrade especially if the OS will not boot.
Restore the Operating System on the new drive without your old one installed.
Install a good virus protection program, and make sure the virus data is updated. I like the free version of AVAST. It has never let me down.
Then connect the old drive to the PC and be sure it does not try to boot from that drive when you start the PC. First hit del or F2 depending on your bios, and select the new drive as the bood drive.
Boot your clean OS with AV software and run a scan on the old drive. It should be able to clean the infections off of the old drive since nothing loaded from that drive. The you back up any files you do not want lost. I have done this many times.
Unfortunately, a key Windows file (Windows Root\system32\hal.dll) was corrupted. The WIndows Recovery disk that I ordered from Sony Vaio Technical Support requires that I erase all the files on my c: drive. Before I do that, I want to explore all alternative options. How many of my emails can Verizon recover?
Forgot to answer one question. Yes, I am/was using Outlook Express as my email s/w.
See my previous post. I had updated my recomendations. Might be a good time to upgrade your drive and start clean. Or even if your drive is not old. You could always use more storage.
I have a bad habbit of updating my posts when I am still logged in. Verizon does not save your emails if your client deletes them from the server when it downloads them.
@HITMAN wrote:
How many of my emails can Verizon recover?
To address just this question, unless you had the box checked to leave messages on the server, then none. When OE reads the messages and loads them onto your hard drive they are immediately deleted from the server, unless that checkbox is checked. Now if you did have it checked, and you had set the time delay long enough, they will still be available on the server (but they could disappear at any moment, depending on how many days you had set for them to be kept).
__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
QIP6416-P1, IMG 1.7C, Build 09.83
Keller, TX 76248
@HITMAN wrote:Unfortunately, a key Windows file (Windows Root\system32\hal.dll) was corrupted. The WIndows Recovery disk that I ordered from Sony Vaio Technical Support requires that I erase all the files on my c: drive.
So it is a laptop? If so, difficult to take the hard drive out and attach it to another PC and get the data off before installing the recovery system.
There are websites where you can find dll files. You can do a Google search and find lots of them. I have never used them so I have no way to make a recommendation but you should be able to find the replacement dll, hopefully with instructions on what you need to install it.
The next issue is how to install a replacement dll. If you have, or can get or build, a bootable CD that understands the file system you were using (FAT or NTFS), you could conceptually boot from the CD and replace the corrupted dll with the good one. And then hopefully your PC would boot.
At this point I suspect that trying to do the above is more than you want to try to accomplish yourself. Have you talked to a local PC repair shop? They probably already have the tools to do what I was describing, plus they have probably done it before. It would cost some $$$$ to have someone do it, but the chances for success are probably fairly high.
And for the future, I hope this experience convinces you to invest in an external hard drive ($50 - $125) and some backup software (free up to maybe $50) and to actually take backups periodically. I take full volume backups once every week or two, if I have a hard drive failure or virus corruption I can be back where I was when I took the backup in less than an hour, and most of that time would be drinking coffee or eating lunch while it restores. (not trying to preach here, but far too many people have experienced what your are and have to start over from scratch - having reasonably current backups can save a lot of time and money)
Good luck.
__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
QIP6416-P1, IMG 1.7C, Build 09.83
Keller, TX 76248
There are cables or cases available that allow you to us a laptop drive externally via a USB port. Most laptop drives can be easily changed by removing the cover plate on the bottom of the PC. Just a thought. I know people that have upgraded their laptop drives and the bought an external usb drive case for using the old drive as external storage. Laptop drives get banged around alot. So you would need to question if the drive might also be damaged.
Just another thought. They can be purchased for less than $20.
@prisaz wrote:There are cables or cases available that allow you to us a laptop drive externally via a USB port. Most laptop drives can be easily changed by removing the cover plate on the bottom of the PC.
Good point! I tend to forget about stuff like that.....
__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
QIP6416-P1, IMG 1.7C, Build 09.83
Keller, TX 76248
Start a new topic or ask questions in the open forum.
