Lost mail — same old story!

[Calvados]

It's no longer unique, stuff happens. A huge hunk of my saved mail evaporated. To partially offset this mishap, I have an old backup clone of my directory waiting in the wings. This means I can restore my mail as of 2 months ago. But I also have a lot of new mail, since 2 months ago, sitting in my current mailbox.

Is there anyone out there bright enough to figure out how I can retrieve my pre 2 months ago mail (which will have some of the mail I lost), while not losing my post 2 months ago mail (which will have the remaining part of my lost mail)?

I'm running Mac OS X 10.3.9 and working with Fantom's 2 GB external drive. While this seems like a simple proposition — I don't think it is!

 

[Kees Buijs]

It's no longer unique, stuff happens. A huge hunk of my saved mail evaporated. To partially offset this mishap, I have an old backup clone of my directory waiting in the wings. This means I can restore my mail as of 2 months ago. But I also have a lot of new mail, since 2 months ago, sitting in my current mailbox.

Is there anyone out there bright enough to figure out how I can retrieve my pre 2 months ago mail (which will have some of the mail I lost), while not losing my post 2 months ago mail (which will have the remaining part of my lost mail)?

I'm running Mac OS X 10.3.9 and working with Fantom's 2 GB external drive. While this seems like a simple proposition — I don't think it is!

What you can try is create a new account and add the old mail to that account. Afterwards you merge the contents of the accounts together. Other options do exist, but are depend in general on the kind of software used. Also better make a more frequent backup if that is so important, 2 months is almost like making no backup at all.


Good luck, Kees (wishing everyone a hppay 2007).

 

[Calvados]

I wasn't eager to create another email account, but you gave me a neat idea. I dumped all my old mail into a new mailbox I created right from the Menu Bar. I called my new mailbox simply "Old Mail."

Then, after selecting the entire "Old Mail" mailbox, I went to Menu Bar > Message > Move To > In box. To my amazement, it went like clockwork — I couldn't believe how easy it was.

Thank you very much for the inspiration. And, Im resolved to do more frequent backups. I loved how easy it was to retrieve my old mail from my external drive and go from there. My feeling now is I could have downloaded directly into my In box without the fancy footwork, but no matter, I back in business.