how can I salvage data from SK+ Outlook files? 1

[heartsease]

HI Folks
Many years (and 'puters) ago I was an enthusiastic user of Borland Sidekick Plus. I just tried to revisit some old Outlook files & can't fire up SK+ (message "not enough space on disk&quot. It's very probable that I've never used SK+ on this pc before & have simply transferred the file directory over intact from a previous machine - can anyone EITHER suggest what I need to to do to get SK+ running OR tell me whether one of the more recent Windows incarnations includes Outlook.
I'm currently running WinME (for my sins)
Many thanks!

 

[james33]

Dear heartsease,
See faq807-3761
for where to get a copy of SKW2 / Sidekick95.
See also faq807-3000 for ways to open at least SK1 files in SKW2/Sidekick95.
The Cardfiles may be in *.csv format and in that case you could import them anyway,
Go to Tools|Import Cardfile then navigate to the Folder and choose from the drop down list what File Type you wish to import.
HTH

Regards Jim
Check the FAQ area of this Forum for answers (If there are any FAQs!) , it could save you a lot of time and effort and means that links are more likely to be current. Please 'Comment' on them if they are not!

 

[heartsease]

Hi Jim

Many thanks for this - alas SK95 doesn't include Outlook so no use. I think I need to get ol' SK+ working - at worst it may work if I boot the pc in DOS using a floppy ... just hoped someone had come across this error before & could suggest what I'd done wrong.

Thanks again
Su

 

[heartsease]

CORRECTION! I wrote OUTLOOK (implying MS Outlook) when I meant OUTLINER as in SKPlus Outliner files. Really sorry!

 

[james33]

Dear Su,
Good luck with the task, and just as a matter of interest, could you explain the function of Outliner?
As an addendum:
To relieve my ignorance on this matter I would be interested in trying out a copy of SK+ for research purposes, so if there is anyone who has a copy; commenting on one of my FAQs should give them my email address...
for example faq807-3761
Thanks in advance!


Regards Jim
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[heartsease]

Outliner: okay, here goes: according to the box SK+ offers "Nine Outliners with automatic numbering, tree charts, and table of contents" which doesn't really tell you much. If you promise not to laugh, it would probably be easier if I told you what I used it for.
I am interested in history, and used it for creating family trees, indenting each generation. Word has a similar facility but the huge bonus with Sidekick (apart from the fact that in those halcyon days I was using WordStar) was that you could attach a Note to each heading which normally remained hidden. So, in my case, the heading would be the person's name & birth/death years/places: 'hidden' behind would be various details, including source reverences back to my original notebooks. I could then hide generations at any level etc etc etc so I could see whatever overall picture suited me at the time ... I'm sure you get the drift
Time has passed, and there are good genealogy programs which do the job much better; but I have found a discrepancy and failed to copy across the source information attached to a "fact" so now I want to look at that note on the old Outline ....

Yes I'm a sad anorak

Su

 

[james33]

Dear Su,
Good explanation,
Sounds like more than a little lateral thinking was applied, which along with the attention to detail shows a rare and valuable talent, one which can be difficult to find in these days of fast fixes!
Good Luck

Regards Jim
Check the FAQ area of this Forum for answers (If there are any FAQs!) , it could save you a lot of time and effort and means that links are more likely to be current. Please 'Comment' on them if they are not!

 

[garybritt]

Heartease, skplus uses file control blocks instead of just file handles to open and use files. WinMe might cause a problem with this. If you don't have a config.sys file that defines an entry for FCBS= might be a problem.

SKPLUS will run in a dos box under Win98 and Win2K. Everything but alarms seems to work ok. Other possible KPlus problems could come from your files being corrupted, or your having copied the files over to a different drive letter from where they were originally installed. SKPLUS "builds" its exe file during an install and setup, and it hard codes the drive and directory where it was installed into the exe file. That particular execution file won't run from any other drive and directory. You can solve this problem in one of two ways. You can use a hex editor to edit the exe file and change the drive and directory indicators contained therein or you can simply re-run the install/build command to create a new exe file for the drive letter and directory where skplus is currently installed.

If the above don't solve your problem, I'd try a pure dos boot and then run skplus. Unless your files are corrupted that would have to work.

Good Luck,

Gary Britt

 

[heartsease]

Hi Gary
Thanks for the suggestions.
My CONFIG.SYS file is completely blank!!
Had a look at SKPLUS.EXE with hex editor but can't see any drive / directory details.
Tried DOS boot from floppy, then running sidekick, results in message: "You must start Sidekick Plus from its own directory. Sidekick Plus cannot load." which very much bears out what you are saying. Tried second-guessing what directory I MIGHT have used - default is C:\skp - but to no avail.
The installation section in the "Owner's Handbook" also says that to run SK+ you need SKPLUS.EXE, .SWP and .FRM. Against .SWP it says "A file that SideKick Plus produces during the installation process. You must NOT delete, remove or rename it". Guess what - can't find one anywhere on my PC.
Hunted through my floppy graveyard to see if I had an ancient full system backup that might just contain and BINGO found 3.5" copy installation disks. Okay, ancient low-density variety but to my astonishment my pc not only read but happily installed said SKPLUS. Except ... I still get the same error message about directories .

My PC is now littered with random copies of SKPLUS (5 on various drives / directories!!) Maybe this is confusing things? Should I try one more time - delete them ALL - and reinstall yet again???

Suggestions?

Su

 

[garybritt]

Hi Su,

Try adding this line to your config.sys file "Fcbs=18,0" without the quotes of cousrse.

A fresh install of skplus shouldn't exhibit the can't find the exe file error message. I would suggest starting by clearing from your hard disk all installs of skplus (and move to a directory outside of your path the old skplus data files that you want to open). Run the skplus install from inside WinME dos box. Run that dos box in full screen mode just to try and improve your chances. You set full screen mode in the msdos box properties or by hitting alt-enter to take it back and forth from windowed mode to full screen mode.

If the skplus install completes properly then you should be able to run skplus from a winME dos box. If not, do a real dos boot from a dos boot floppy and go from there. Once you get skplus in its fresh default state running you should be able to switch to the outliner module and then do a file open and try to open one of your older outliner files. If they won't open at that point then maybe they are corrupted. I would suggest starting skplus.exe with the /g switch which loads it as a regular dos app and not a tsr pop-up app.

I don't know what you were looking at when you viewed the skplus.exe file with a hex editor but I assure you that the file contains clearly visible references to a drive letter and drive letter and directory paths. On a fresh install of skplus these should match the drive and directories where skplus is installed. At a minimum a freshly installed skplus.exe file would contain a drive letter reference such as "c:\". If you do a search in the hex editor for ":\" you should turn up the coded drive letters and paths.

I would suggest installing skplus into a directory whose drive and full path conform to the old dos 8.3 naming conventions. Something like c:\skplus is where I installed mine. c:\skp should be fine also.

Good Luck,

Gary Britt

 

[garybritt]

Heartease,

One last note, you are mis-interpreting the manual regarding needing a *.SWP and *.FRM files for skplus to work. The SWP file is a swap file that is created by skplus when it is first invoked and swaps memory to disk in order to pop-up. I'm not sure what the *.FRM file is, but I have an old legacy copy of skplus lying around on my hard drive and it works just fine under win98 and win2k. Never tried on winME as I avoided that particularly operating system. I don't have an SWP file because I don't run skplus in tsr pop-up mode. I always use the /g switch to run skplus in non-resident regular dos app mode when running it under windows.

Gary

 

[heartsease]

Hi Gary
Many thanks for your help. Alas have tried all suggestions - added line to config.sys, removed all old versions & reinstalled using WinME Dos box etc but still get "Not Enough Space on Disk". Must be a "feature" of WinME I think.
Used the Hex viewer facility in xTree to look at SKPLUS.EXE. Still can't find any drives / paths! Very frustrating ....
Guess I'll give up (or install on a different 'puter with a different operating system!!)

Thanks for trying, anyway

Su