Help me recover Win98SE files and import to Win2K 1

[jspargo]

I am in the midst of building a new system to replace my very, very, old system (a 7 year old 400 MHz PII if you must know). The old system is running 98SE. For the new system (P4 3 GHz, I've decided to go with Win2K (it was close, but I'll wait a bit longer before dipping my toes into XP. Besides,my laptop runs Win2K, as does my office computer).

Slight problem- my old system is now toast (literally, unless the puff of smoke two days ago means we have a new pope). I tried some simple fixes (new power supply, inspecting the motherboard caps), but the box is dead. However, I'm pretty sure my hard disk is OK (won't know for sure until I get it installed on something live). So now I have a problem. I'd like to get the following from my 98 disk: IE Favorites, Outlook Express (OE 6) Address Book, Sent Mail folder, Inbox Folder, and all of the data from My Documents (and my OE Newsgroup settings and files if possibler, though I'm pretty sure I can reconstruct these). So how do I do this?

Can I slap the 98 drive into one of my new system's bays and get all the files and simply put them in the right places on the (to be created soon) Win2K drive? If so, can someone point me to the steps I need to go through?

Is it possible to stick the 98 drive into the C: position in the new system, do some quick exporting and backup, then install the new Win2K drive (the 98 disk is a vanilla WD 40 GB, and the new disk is is a Seagate 80 GB SATA), given how different the hardware on the two systems is?

Any help or advice is appreciated. Right now I'm more annoyed than desperate- I've been dawdling over building the new systems and putting off the necessary preparations for export in the old system- and I'm paying the price. Another thing- I'm going out today to buy a couple of USB/Firewire drive enclosures (my old system had a couple of removables- great for backup/data security, but now I think external is the way to go). Would it be better to buy an extra enclosure and stick the 98 disk in that?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[aquias]

Putting the 98 disk in as primary will cause you some headaches. If you pop it in as a primary you'll be forced to install all of the updated drivers for the new system. Now, if you have the systems disk, this should be a quick and easy process (provided 98 drivers come with all the new hardware) and allow you access to your files.

If that is the case then just do an export/import in Outlook to pull out old mail and address book information. Then follow the steps a few sentances below to pull out your favorites and you're all set to go.

The above is providing, of course, that the drive didn't get slapped by the new Pope as he passed through. If that's the case you may still be able to recover some data by placing the old hd in as a secondary (depends on how bad the hd got slapped).

If the latter is the case and you're able to still browse the drive then you can pull files over by browsing out to them.

The favorites folder is easy enough go to Windows\Favorites and copy that folder down to

C:\Documents and Settings\(Your name)

Outlook might not play as nicely if this is the case. What you'll be looking for will be .wab/pab and .eml files to pull over. The .wab/.pab are your personal address book and the .eml files will be any mail that you've saved in outlook.

Once pulled over you'll need to move your address book to

C:\Documents and Settings\(Your name)\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book

Double click on this file and it should import itself into Outlook for you.

As for where your E-Mail needs to go or additional ways to pull over saved/old E-Mail. I'm still looking for information that'll help you with that as I haven't done that particular process yet (not without the export/import feature) so I'm not up to snuff on all the file names or locations.

Now, if you can't browse out at all I would say is check out some file recovery options. I don't know of any freebies but this page

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=940830&page=1

has someone asking about options for file recovery.

 

[Waidesworld]

You may have an issue with the format of the drive. A few weeks ago I had a drive that was FAT and not recognised by 2K (NTFS). You can convert this drive from FAT to NTFS and should do so.
If you are afraid of losing anything copy the My docs folder as that contains all you need, correctly stated by aquias.
If you convert the drive, and I have done so, you lose nothing, assuming you do it correctly, you will be able to use it as a backup HDD in the new system

Please address my pet hate, "a cable is loose, you lose your keys

 

[jspargo]

Thanks for the reply. I figured it would breakdown as you described: Use the 98 disk for a short path fraught with pitfalls, or manually extract the files from the disk and manually add them to the 2000 disk- longer, but safer. I may try booting the 98 disk tonight (if I finish assembling the system- I'm just ready to install and configure the motherboard). I do have the 98SE CD somewhere (it's been a few years). I figure- what's the worst that can happen? It doesn't work and I have to go to plan B?

As far as file recovery goes, I have that covered, I think. Since I've gone to a removable slot, I've taken to cloning the C: drive with Norton Ghost every once in a while- it actually allowed me to quickly recover from a disk crash last year. My most recent clone is about 6 weeks old, but beggars can't be choosers. Before that, I had a crash and got hold of some file recovery software for (as I recall) around $150. It was great- it allowed me to completely recover a huge amount of data, and even my Favorites (if I recall correctly) after a complete crash. I've never tried to recover from a hardware crash, so I'm not sure how useful the software will be if I discover the system fry included the hard disk. I can't recall the name of the software, but I know it's not available anymore (I'll look at the disk when I get home and provide the title- maybe some copies floating around still)

Thanks again!