Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games

Subject: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: Joybell
Date: 25 Apr 08 - 06:40 PM

I've just set up a new computer. Windows XP professional. Every time I insert my memory stick - SanDisk - (cruzer it says on the back) it assigns itself a new drive name. It's up to "drive L". All of the other names are still there, but if I click on them they tell me to insert something into them -- but not to expect them to work because they're full. (I'm paraphrasing here - can't help it.)
I manage to get rid of them but they re-appear again when I insert the stick. There was no software with the memory stick and it works on other computers - just fine.
What happens when we reach Z?
I've learned to play its silly games and to guess which drive it's calling itself today but should I worry?
Can anybody help please?
Rumplestiltskin and Joy

Subject: RE: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: NightWing
Date: 25 Apr 08 - 07:06 PM

Are you clicking the icon in the System Tray to remove it "neatly" before actually pulling it out?

Those non-existent "drives" should go away when you reboot, but there's clearly something not working the way it's supposed to.

BB,
NightWing

Subject: RE: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: Joybell
Date: 25 Apr 08 - 07:32 PM

Thanks for the reply, NightWing.
Yes I do ask it if it minds before I remove it. It says, "You may safely remove the device" and then I do. We're on good terms that way. Polite and caring.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 25 Apr 08 - 10:21 PM

But 'poplite & caring' is obvious not getting adequate results.

Plan B.

Throw the ****ing thing out the window! :-)

Subject: RE: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 25 Apr 08 - 11:17 PM

With the memory stick plugged into the computer, in Windows Explorer click on the stick drive letter that's working. Click "Tools" on the top bar, and then click "Folder Options." Click on the "View" tab and make sure there's a check/dot at "show hidden files and folders." Also make sure to uncheck the line that says "Hide protected operating system files."

Very nearly all flash drives come with some sorts of small programs on them. On really cheap ones it may be just an advertisement to "buy a bigger one next time" but quite often its a "synch" program or some other sort of "file management" bit, and in any case is frequently in a "hidden folder" or is a single "hidden file."

Since the attributes can be applied separately to individual files, folders, and drives, your drive can come with stuff tagged as "hidden" and/or "system" on them. It may look like there's nothing there, since that drive can have different attributes than you've set for the rest of the computer. You may just not ever have seen what's on the stick (although it is possible that there really isn't anything there).

Also note that the "Safely Remove Hardware" button in the "System Tray" (more correctly the "Startup Tray" if you believe Microsoft) does not always give a visible message of when it's safe to remove.

If you click once, it often just "raises a flag" where you can click the drive/device you want to remove. In some configurations when you click the device, the "flag" just disappears, and you should get a "plunk" sound when it's safe to remove. If in doubt, you can click the tray button again and verify that the device is gone from the list of devices before you physicallly unplug it.

(If you double-click on the tray icon, it should actually open a menu up on the desktop, and you should be able to actually see the device disappear after you click the "Stop" button. The problem is that in this view all usb devices will show as "usb storage device at location 0" so there's no way to tell which to click if there's more than one.)

Small flash drives should usually "stop" almost immediately, but sometimes it takes a few seconds even for tiny ones. Large flash drives, and external hard drives sometimes will notify you that the device "cannot be stopped at this time." This usually means that there's still "stuff" in a read/write buffer somewhere. There's no reliable way to force the "drive" to finish clearing the buffers, so it may be necessary to just wait and try later.

If you restart the computer, it will try to dump all the drive buffers before shutting down, and you should be able to disconnect while the computer of "off" or (using the safely remove button) immediately after the reboot; but while the "finish writing" step is 99.9999% good it actually isn't 100% guaranteed to save everything. Data loss is rare, and critical data loss probably is extremely rare, but either can (at least theoretically) happen if you try to "hurry" a disconnect.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: Rowan
Date: 25 Apr 08 - 11:29 PM

Very nearly all flash drives come with some sorts of small programs on them. On really cheap ones it may be just an advertisement to "buy a bigger one next time" but quite often its a "synch" program or some other sort of "file management" bit, and in any case is frequently in a "hidden folder" or is a single "hidden file."

I've had to get such memory sticks for my daughters to use at school and I've not yet seen a SanDisk "Cruzer" memory stick in Oz that wasn't sold with both a file management program as well as a partition for a 'pretend' CD.

It's quite possible, Sandra, that what JiK has written about how you may have configured your system is "the go", concerning file attributes.

Cheers, and good luck, Rowan

Subject: RE: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: Joybell
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 02:57 AM

Thanks John. I checked the tab that said, "show hidden files and folders." It had been unchecked.
The next bit -- unchecking, "Hide protected operating system files." told me the computer would not work if I went ahead and did that.
Is it a lie?
Anyway I think the first bit might have worked. I watched the drive disappear when I removed the stick. (I'm always careful to wait for the "Safe to remove device" message before I do that.)
Now I think I can remove the extra drive icons -- I did that once before. Then I'll see if they return.
Thank you again.
Regards, Joy

Subject: RE: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 03:49 AM

Although they all look pretty much alike, there are several different "flavors" of flash drives.

SanDisk seems to be among the "more reputable" makers, and some of them may come preloaded with a couple of kinds of programs, since SanDisk is more likely than some others to offer "advanced features."

One common type of content is a "synch program" that purports to resolve differences between files on the flash drive and those on a hard drive from which the files were originally copied. This is to handle the case where you use the flash drive to load the files on another computer, edit them, and then bring the flash drive back home.

I've avoided using synch programs pending finding someone to tell me how discrepancies are resolved. Sometimes I don't want the most recent file to overwrite an older one, especially if both versions have been edited while the file was "off wandering." Thus far I've waited about 12 years without finding a coherent explanation, so I'm still avoiding "automatic synch."

Some kinds of flash drives also can be used as "supplemental System Memory" on some WinXP or Vista computers, and usually these kinds will come preloaded with the appropriate "hooks" for this kind of usage.

Either of these kinds of programs can be set up to "autoload" the first time you insert the drive, and in both cases, to facilitate the specific usages, the computer may be "told to remember" the drive letter first assigned to the flash drive. If the autorun is allowed to run multiple times, you could end up with a flash drive with multiple personalities, perhaps as seems to have happened here.

Some of us consider anything that "automatically" puts stuff on your computer a bit on the impolite side, unless it's a CD/DVD specifically intended for program installation. The sellers of some of this kind of stuff, however, firmly believe that everybody wants exactly what they have to sell, so often even the bit of unintelligible "quick start" instructions found in odd mixtures of Englanese, Japanglish, or Urdulish don't say a word about what you can expect to happen when you plug in - - it just happens and they know it will make you happy.

IF THIS MIGHT BE WHAT'S HAPPENED, any synch programs or memory augment programs should appear in Control Panel Add/Remove programs, where you can remove them and start over. Recognizing the right programs there, even if they do appear, may require some "linguistic juggling."

If the programs can be removed, rebooting with the flash drive NOT PLUGGED IN in theory should clear the drive letter assignments.

If nothing appears in Control Panel, a search of your system hard drive for any program name(s) found on the flash drive - that you didn't put there - may find a folder where the "accessories" were installed. The folder may contain an "uninstall" - sometimes with a bizarre name like "Unwise.exe" or other such nonsense.

If no program is in Control Panel, but a folder is found, and the folder doesn't contain an uninstall script/exe, usually deleting the folder should remove the program.

If all of the above fail to produce a logical path for cleaning things up, you can consider the last-resort method, which consists of using Device Manager to delete (all of) the USB controllers and then letting PnP reinstall them when you reboot and and then reconnect USB devices. I haven't found another simpler way of getting rid of a true "persistent phantom" USB device. If anyone has a better (less drastic) fix, please call home ASAP.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 04:05 AM

Joybell -

You cross posted while I was pretending to be thinking really hard.

If you've figured out how to get the extra drives off, then by all means try that out.

The caution against showing System files is because if you can see them you might be tempted to change them. Making them visible won't affect how they run. Just don't delete them without being pretty sure of what you're trying to accomplish.

Once you've checked out what's there - or isn't - you can of course put the check mark back if it makes them emote more intimately with the rest of your machine. One likely shouldn't operate a machine routinely with a naked system, especially one that blushes easily.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: Joybell
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 06:15 PM

John, This is what I like about Mudcat.
Where else can I get advice from a poet.
The drives came back, alas, but I understand a little more about what's going on. There's a helpful fellow at the shop where I bought the computer -- I'll give him a call after the weekend.
Thank you. I'll report back.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 09:09 PM

I hate to change the subject and all, but I couldn't help thinking that "My Memory Stick Is Playing Silly Games" would make a terrific song title...

Subject: RE: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 10:21 PM

Joe O -

Was it the line:

One likely shouldn't operate a machine routinely with a naked system ...

that tweaked your inspiration gland?

"My silly stick is playing memory games" might be a better country/western cryin'-in-the-beer song title. I can see multiple "philosophical tacks" for that format. And I'm sure we've got someone who could parse it into several other close-enough variations.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 11:18 PM

John you did say S-T-ick...?

Subject: RE: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 01:25 AM

Fooles -

You can always release it as a vocal and nobody will know whether it's stick or shtick until you actually publish the lyrics. The lyric can play around with suggesting either/both.

If you wait for somebody to post the words without your permission you have a sure-fire proof of unauthorized publication and copyright violation by claiming you meant whichever other they didn't use (in each place where one or the other comes up).

Share the wealth with us when you win the case.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: Joybell
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 04:31 AM

OK give me a few hours
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 08:38 AM

John, I thought you meant [S-3], [T-2], I, C, K...

not that I would call suck a wonderful gentleman like you anything like that... :-)

er, that should be SUCH... :-P

Subject: RE: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: Joybell
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 06:31 PM

"Little Old Log Cabin...." tune should be a good start. No matter it's been used so often. Nothing's come to mind yet though.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 09:55 PM

I'm not coming up with much myself. It's probably from my being too inhibited. Everytime I try to be "cleverly suggestive" everybody say's I'm just talkin' dirty.

Foolestroupe might be able to come up with something. Several people have said he's a couple of twigs short of a branch ... fell out of an ugly tree and never missed a stick on the way down ... got a bad beatin' with an ugly stick ...

[I think there were a couple of other good quotes, but if he gets too riled up he gets too excited to do anything useful - - - I've heard - - - ]

_{[[although I never could tell much difference when he seemed to be pretty well wound up]]}.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: GUEST,k
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 07:11 PM

Damned good reggae song

Subject: RE: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 11:00 PM

I've got a very similar problem. I've been trying to transfer the contents of my Outlook Express address book onto my new computer - by a memory a stick and then a cd . However the new empty address book keeps coming up when i go into Windows Explorer to copy it.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

thanks in advance

al

Subject: RE: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 11:37 PM

weelittle - -

Is it, by any chance, that you have no friends and the original address book you're trying to copy is also empty?

[Just a random shot to cover all the bases]

Most computers will have multiple address books. There will be a separate one for each user. Even if you are the only user, and haven't "passworded" logins, there will still be separate address books for "Administrator," "All Users," and for whatever "username" you've done all your email in.

The "Administrator" and "All Users" addy books frequently will be "empty" unless you've had an accident and unintentionally looked at email when not "started normally."

From C:\ in windows explorer, or for a quicker search start at "Documents and Settings," do a search for "all files" using the search term *.wab and you should find all of them. Be sure search subfolders is turned on. (You might have to set options to show hidden and system files to see them, but I don't recall needing to.) File size should give a good clue to which one you want - usually. You can copy the entire .wab file to move it to another machine.

Note that IF THE NEW MACHINE is running Vista, it didn't come with Outlook Express and you'll almost be forced to use Outlook. (Installing OE is strongly disparaged by Vista.) Outlook CANNOT import an Outlook Express addy book (.wab) by any simple means. You'll need to go into the old OE, File Import and Export, and export the address book as a "text file" (.csv) to get something that Outlook can import. You should be able to put the .csv file anywhere convenient, to make it easy to find.

If you export to the .csv format, Outlook Express can import from that form as well, and you can read the .csv as a text file in Notepad or Word to verify what's in it - independent of fighting with the import/export functions, os that you're sure it's the one you want.

My guess would be that you're finding the Administrators addy book and it is empty on the source machine.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 29 Apr 08 - 03:29 AM

As far as the original USB Stick is concerned - is there any good reason not to simply back up the contents onto a local hard drive, then format the stick? Does it ACTUALLY need any pre-installed programmes for it to work as a plug-in drive?

On my USB stick I have installed "Portable Apps", a suite of applications which will run on a PC directly from the USB stick without installing ANYTHING on the computer. It runs Firefox browser and amongst others, has a programme which will back up the complete drive, the system settings or the documents.
Depending on the capacity of your stick drive, you can add other portable applications, (the list of which keeps growing), including word processors, spreadsheets, e-mail, graphics manipulation programmes, a music/media player and some games.
Here is a link to the web site BLICKY to - portableapps.com.
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: Joybell
Date: 29 Apr 08 - 09:17 PM

Thanks, Geoff. A friend did suggest something of the sort. I think I'll clear the memory stick and start over. I'll take a look at the site you've given too. Thanks.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 29 Apr 08 - 09:27 PM

John....

When we were in the SCA, a friend of mine invented the comcept of "The Courtesy Stick"... most often used by the Stick Jocks (Heavy Fighters) - of course it only needed to be used one handed.... :-P

Subject: RE: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 30 Apr 08 - 03:43 AM

It's a couple of months since I last had visited the portable Apps site. They have added a whole raft of extra applications since then.
It is reaching a point where, if you have a big USB stick drive (and £4GB ones are now on sale at less than £20 on the high street - about £7 on Ebay, with 8GB ones now dropping in price), you can run something that does the same basic job as almost anything you would use the big computer for.
It also means you can carry the files you are working on, and continue your work using almost any PC with a USB connection.
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 30 Apr 08 - 04:27 AM

Joybell - just remember to back up the stick just in case any of the files you wipe are REALLY needed for it to run properly. The Portable Apps backup does the job fairly efficiently.
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 30 Apr 08 - 04:48 AM

no the old address book is full, and there is the old computer, there on the kitchen table. My wife is very pissed off, cos she likes to eat her dinner off that table.

The new computer is in the computer room - empty address book. I can't work out how to get the old address book onto the new one.

I put it on a stick, burt as soon as it got stuck into the new computer it turned into the new address book - veirtually empty.

I burned the address book to a data disc, but that didn't work. I copied and pasted the adresses onto a word document. thinking I could copy and paste when I got it to the other side. but it wouldn't go down on the word document.

Bit of a bugger, isn't it?

I had a go at doing what you suggested John, but the search turned up some kind of document I couldn't get into.

Subject: RE: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 30 Apr 08 - 05:20 AM

gTd -

Some months ago, before I'd had a stick to play with, an article dealing with the memory cards used in cameras commented on their similarity to the flash sticks - cautioning that "special care" was needed in formatting.

For cards used in cameras, the preference is to always let the camera do any format. Your computer will read what the camera does, but the camera may or may not read a format done by the computer. There was no explanation of why this is so, but several sites affirmed the same recommendation.

For a memory stick to be used with a few computers, it's probably safe to format the stick using the computer utilities. It might be well for someone to do a little browsing for comment on this, but the sticks (for smaller sizes) are cheap enough to experiment with, I suppose.

An almost forgotten curiosity about drives in general popped up with an application LiK was trying to use, once I gave her a stick.

She has a Bernina super sewing machine that supposedly came with a computer connection interface that we had never been able to get any use out of. It requires a serial port connection (with a #%!$@#^!!!! DONGLE) and the only computer we had that we could get close enough to the sewing machine to connect was a laptop that didn't have a serial port connector that the #%!$@#^!!!! DONGLE would accept.

Four or five years down the road, I found a USB-serial converter that the sewing machine would accept. Her old software was obsolete, and wouldn't run on anything but Win95, but some new stuff that she found runs on WinXP/Win2K - with a new #%!$@#^!!!! DONGLE that plugs into a USB port. Still no direct connection between computer and sewing machine; but with the USB converter we could plug in a memory stick to transfer "programs" from her desktop to the sewing machine, after she built them (mostly by downloading from the web, I think) on her WinXP machine.

The forgotten glitch: The memory stick she started out using was a 1 GB and was formatted FAT or FAT32 - I haven't bothered to checked which.

With either of these formats, the root directory can contain no more than ~255(?) entries - files or folders, because each file/folder in the root directory has to have an address in the "root sector" and the root sector only has space for that many address entries.

If you make a folder in the root directory, the folder can have as many files in as you can stuff into it, up to the disk/drive capacity.

Having downloaded several thousand "patterns" that she wanted to try out, naturally she "spoke loving words to her tech support" (I thought she was talking about the #%!$@#^!!!! DONGLE again) and I suggested making a folder and putting them all in the folder.

Success loading the stick with a thousand tiny files, but ... ... then we discovered that the sewing machine can't read the files from a sub-folder. They have to be in the root of the stick for the machine to access them.

Someday, maybe, I'll give you my full impression of the idiots who produce "computer campatible" sewing machines and stitch layout programs, but I think I'll wait a bit. I've only had a few months to settle down from Lin's latest round of trying to make some of it work. If I do get around to it, I may also give you my opinion of people who foist those #%!$@#^!!!! DONGLES on anyone - for ANY reason.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 30 Apr 08 - 05:55 AM

Yes John. It is a pretty stupid system, but I presume the sewing machine only runs one programme at an one time. I expect I would still store ALL the programmes in a directory, or grouped in sub
folders within the directory, then simply copy the ones I need down to the root of the drive when needed, and then erase the copies when I had finished the job (making sure the original "master" file stayed in its home sub-directory.
Guack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 30 Apr 08 - 06:44 AM

weelittledrummer -

The NORMAL WAY:

You should be able to find the address book(s) using Windows explorer, Search, filenames containing ".wab" (without quotes), search subfolders and hidden and system files.

A simpler way:

In OE, Click Tools|Address Book

In the Address Book click Help|About Address Book

In the Window that opens it should show you the full path and filename of the address book you're using in that instance of Outlook Express. It will be different (probably) for each user on the computer.

Write down the whole path and filename. It will probably be something like:

C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book\Username.wab

Go to that location and copy the .wab file to someplace easily accessible, either on the hard drive or on the memory stick.

In the new OE, File|Import|Address Book

This should open a Windows Explorer window where you can browse to where you put the .wab file. Click on the file, then click Open. This should return you to the import wizard where you can complete the import.

Desparation method: On the new computer, you can also open OE, Tools|Address Book, Help|About Address Book to see if a location is set up. Copy (write down) that location, then go to it and copy the old addy book .wab file and paste it into new location - replacing any .wab file that's there. An import should add names to an existing addy book. Pasting the old one on top of the new one replaces one entire addy book with another one. (Don't use this method unless both machines have the same version of OE.)

Doing it the hard-but-usually-certain-way:

From the old OE, File|Export|Export Address Book

Choose "Text File (Comma Separated Values) and click Export

You should get a box to give the exported file a name, and a Browse button. Name it something like "weeaddy" and click the Browse button to choose where to put it. Put it somewhere that will be EASY to find.

When you have picked the place and a name for the file, the "Next" button will give you a list of "things to include." I'd suggest just putting a check in all of the boxes.

When the file has been exported, you should be able to copy it to a memory stick or anything else. I would suggest that you Copy it to the hard drive on the new machine for the actual import to the new OE.

In OE on the new machine, File|Import|Other Address Book, and select Text File (Comma Separated Values). When you hit Import, it should let you browse to wherever you put the .csv file (on the new machine), click on it to select the right file, and import it into your new OE.

My .wab (the normal OE address book file) is only about 235 KB, and it's got lots of "business contacts" in it. The .csv version is about 23 KB. Either one should be easy enough to move over.

Email messages work similarly, for messages in local folders on your old computer. If you have a separate "hotmail" or "gmail" etc folder, you should move everything into "Local Folders" before "exporting." You should also run File|Folders|Compact All Folders before moving stuff.

Find the .dbx folders that go with your mail. They should be in a place like:

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{biglongstringofrandomnumbers}\Microsoft\Outlook Express.

The "Outlook Express" folder should contain nothing but a bunch of .dbx "files." Recommended: Copy the ENTIRE "OUTLOOK EXPRESS" FOLDER. Do NOT try to copy individual .dbx files since they're not actually files/folders in the conventional sense. They're just places within a database.

Past the whole folder "Outlook Express" (you can rename it by adding a date or other ident info) somewhere EASY to find. This could be on your memory stick.

On the new machine, in OE, File|Import|Email Messages will ask you what kind of messages. You should be using Outlook Express 6, but check the one appropriate for your OLD OE. You will see next "Import Messages from an Outlook Express 6 Store Folder." The import wizard will let you browse to where the Outlook Express folder that you moved over is located, and as soon as you click on it, it should ask you what messages you want to import. You can choose to import only certain "folders" although for this transfer you'll likely want to "select all." You cannot import individual messages.

The email folder will be a lot larger than the addy book, and depending on how meticulous you are about sorting messages into local folders you could have lots of folders. As long as they're within the Outlook Express folder you can have as many as you want, but on some sticks trying to copy all the .dbx files into the root of the stick might not get them all (see message above).

One of Lin's recent exports to backup had 296 folders and ran 855 MB, but normal people don't do that.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 30 Apr 08 - 06:50 AM

GtD -

Yeah. You can be sensible. I can be sensible. But someone else is actually the user of the machine.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 30 Apr 08 - 10:37 AM

John. Many thanks. I have set my wife to work doing this task.

Subject: RE: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 30 Apr 08 - 12:45 PM

Just want to publish a public word of commendation about John. thanks a million. We have an address book!

Subject: RE: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: Joybell
Date: 30 Apr 08 - 08:44 PM

And I seem to have assigned my memory stick to a drive letter that hasn't changed in 3 days. (The phantom drives keep looming but they aren't increasing in number).
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: Tech: My memory stick is playing silly games
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 01 May 08 - 04:20 AM

Gee golly, weelittledrummer.

Are you sure it wasn't just:

1. I have set my wife to work doing this task.

2. We have an address book!

Congratulations - no matter what the method or the cause. And glad to have been of help (assuming it wasn't just wife's superior computing skills).

-----

Additional bits that may be helpful with Outlook Express.

You can "back up" your whole email bundle at any time by copying the Outlook Express folder to another location. It remains recommended that you always do a File|Folder|Compact All Folders immediately before making a backup.

Problem: If you restore email messages from a backup folder, all the messages in the backup folder will be added to your active OE messages, even if some of them are still there from before the backup, or are there from a previous restore. You will get duplicates of any messages from the backup that were already "in OE."

The .dbx files are database files, so each message has a "record number" to identify it within OE. Two records can be identical but as long as they have different record numbers one is as good as the other, and OE can (and will) keep them both. [Related to the duplicates found at mudcat immediately after the big crash-and-restore, perhaps?]

Some "real database programs" include a "purge" utility that can look for duplicates and remove them; but manually deleting the extras one at a time is the only method I've found in OE.

Each .dbx file will show as a folder in OE. You can choose which folders to restore and you don't have to restore all the folders that are in a backup.

You can only restore entire folders - - - you can't choose individual messages within a folder to restore.

You can export a single message by selecting the file and then clicking File|Save As. The message will be saved as a single file with .eml extension. When you double-click a .eml file, it should open in OE, and once open you can "Move to folder" to put it into an OE folder, but .eml files have to be "restored" one at a time.

Other email programs save the same file type, but often with a file extension .email. If someone sends you an attachment with .email file extension, you can change the "name" to one with a .eml extension and OE will almost always open it. (I assume that some people would need to change the .eml on an attachment you send them to .email to open your attachment, but haven't had a friend who's complained so some programs might open both/either.

You can "backup" a single OE "folder" by copying a single .dbx file from the working Outlook Express folder. People have reported lots of trouble restoring from single folder backups; hence the recommendation that you save your "backup" as a complete Outlook Express folder. Usually you can get a single folder backup back into OE if you create an empty folder in OE with the identical folder name that's in the backup before attempting to restore it, but a few people have reported that this doesn't always work.

You can also "back up" your address book by just copying the .wab file somewhere safe.

Note though that Outlook can't import a .wab address book, so if you might someday "move up" to Outlook you do need to save a backup .csv file of the data in your addy book. Vista does not contain OE, and adding it to a Vista machine is strongly disparaged by Microsoft. (That could be because OE works so well, and they don't want something like that on Vista machines?)

I haven't seen "duplicate names" when an OE Address Book is imported into OE, and I've cross-updated .wab files from one machine to another, and the from the other to the one to "synchronize" addy books on two machines. I can't say that it can't produce duplicate entries - just that I haven't seen that behaviour.

John