Hi all,

I'm really hoping I can get an answer to my problem (one that I like...lol)

Here it is:

I'm trying to help my sister(stubborn, anti-technology attitude, & computer illiterate) with her computer. She is running Win 98 SE. (Her system isn't able to take on a newer one)

I've never used 98 myself. (I went right from 95 to XP)

Neither one of us has the financial means to run out and purchase anything so she's relying on me to get it working. (She lives 80 miles away so it was difficult to work with her)

With that having been said, my first problem is this:

I had stopped her from using MS Outlook Express about 1 1/2 years ago. She had started using NetZero: (Which I finally got her to switch a week ago to a provider (Provide.net) that's local and I've used for 13 years)

Back at that time she made me keep Outlook Express untouched because of her past emails on it.

Well, she was/is having major crashing issues. We can't even defrag. (it freezes during it)

She had Norton on it.(I uninstalled that 1 1/2 years ago and replaced with AVG free, and also installed AdAware)

Well, she continued to have issues(it did run better tho) but I couldn't remain to fix. (I did try to help her over the phone when she had trouble)

I managed to get there a few weeks ago(she was at her wits end with it) (So I've brought her puter home with me to try to get it working better with the intention of eventually reformatting it.)

Well first of all I totally forgot about her needing her Outlook Express files and I (gulp) uninstalled Outlook Express.

1: Is there ANY way to recover those files??

I've tried to see if there were any .dbx files(the files Outlook Express uses I believe) with no success. (There's no file search option like the one in XP. That I know of anyway)

I'm also trying to figure out a way to transfer her other saved files(pics etc.) to another computer before I reformat. She has no means of burning a CD and her computer won't even acknowledge floppys in the A: drive.......
She has a USB port in the back of her case: I tried to plug a thumbstick into it: however it didn't acknowledge it as a drive.

2. Can I plug her hard drive into another computer to see it as a regular(slave) or other drive so I can at least extract her saved files to back them up? If so, how should I go about it?

Or should I just scrap it all, tell her there was no hope and just format the bugger.

I'm afraid to connect it to my computer. I do have another puter with XP on it to try to plug it into.

This issue is making ME feel like an idiot..:dizzy: .. Am I going about this all wrong?

I apologize for the length of this post(if it's even understandable)

I would appreciate any kind of feedback.

Thanks,
Janice

Hi 1. if the .DBX files are sill on the PC you need to copy them they hold your emails there.

2. Yes you could plug her hard drive into another PC and set the drive as a slave and copy the information off it. If you AV is upto date it should be fairly safe