Using Old Hard Drive in Ext Drive Enclosure (USB) on new computer?

My daughter bought a new computer. She wants her email and email
addressbook from her old computer transferred to the new computer. I go
out and buy PC Relocator Ultra Control (highly recommended by PC
Magazine). I install the PC Relocator on the new computer. But when I
try to install it on the old computer it wouldn't power up (power
supply gone bad?).

So now I switch to plan two. I go out and buy a $30 external hard drive
enclosure at CompUSA, remove the hard drive from the old computer and
successfully install it in the external hard drive enclosure. Using the
provided USB cable I connect it to the new computer, which recognizes
the now external drive as drive k:

Since drive k: is not a bootable drive, what I get when I click on the
drive in My Computers are a bunch of files and folders. I cannot for
the life of me figure out how to find my daughter's old emails (lots of
them) and addressbook. Complicating matters is the fact that she's not
sure if she was using Outlook Express or Thunderbird as her email
client.

So I see an icon for Outlook Express on drive k: and click on it. But
what appears is the new Outlook Express, not the old one.

Can anybody tell me how to deal with this now external hard drive to
find the old emails and addressbook?

Thanks so much.

 

Put the drive back in the old computer, boot up, log your daughter in
and export the Address book and Mail messages using the tools built
into OE, if she was using Thunderbird ther mail will be stored in her
profile in the Thunderbird directory under her Documents and settings
Application Data.

 

Can anyone answer the above, I have the same problem with my external
enclosure and I can only transfer the icons and nothing else.

Harry

 

didn't he say the old computer was dead ?
doesn't the location of the email data depend on the version of windows on
the old computer ?

dB

 

The location of your daughters emails and address book varies depending on
the version of windows on the old PC and the email program she was using.

If she was using Outlook Express look for the following on the old drive
(your K: drive)
Emails, Windows 9x probably 'C:\windows\application
data\identities.....\outlook express', Windows 2000/XP 'C:\documents &
Settings\username\.....\outlook express' the files will have the same names
as the folders ie inbox, outbox, sent etc.
Addressbook will be in a folder named 'Address book' nearby and will have a
..wab extension.

If you are lucky you may locate them by searching on K: drive for "inbox.*"
and "*.wab" though if the hidden and system attribute bits are on you may
have to modify your search parameters.

To pull them into the new PC's Outlook Express use the Import facility under
the File menu, eg File, Import, Address Book (or Email Messages) etc (I
forget the exact sequence, just read the prompts) and navigate to the folder
you found on K: drive containing the Address Book / Email messages and
import.

Cheers
Paul.

 

Figure out what she used for email first. if it's OE, then read this page
(scroll down to the section on OE.) it will tell you how to browse for the
right file then import it into your current instance of OE.

http://www.sitedeveloper.ws/tutorials/outlook.htm

 

Yes, the old computer is dead. Strange, though, because it had been
working. Just when I want to transfer all this stuff it decides not to
power on.

The old computer was running Windows XP and so is the new one.

I've printed out the tutorial that Meat Plow sent me the link to and
will try again in the next day or so to locate and move over the email
and contacts in the old OE.

I did do a search (files and folders) for *.wab and found none. But I
guess what I have to search for in Outlook Express are the *.dbx files.

Thank you all for your good avice and suggestions.

 

/me makes a note in "The Big Book of Impossible Things".


Today, someone came to 24hoursupport and received good advice and went
away unscathed and happy!

WOW