Slow write time for eml files?
spamlet
I have been trying to help a friend whose Lycos (UK) mail was shut down this
weekend. He was finding that the form they provided for moving the mail to
another account (Yahoo) was only moving some of the mail, so I offered to
try and collect it via OE.
Had a bit of a long job as he had thousands of mails and OE seemed only to
allow download of 1000 at a time. I ended up with quite a few duplicates in
trying to move this from HTTP boxes to local ones in OE!
However, having weeded out, I then dragged the mail into folders of .eml
files and went to write these to cd.
I then was surprised to find that these files which easily drag and drop
from OE to XP, suddenly move with glacial speed when trying to move them to
cd, and only slightly faster when copying to flash drive.
First, go at copying to CD, these 173meg of files, the pop up said 'time
remaining 22 DAYS'!
Even copying to flash drive took nearly 4 hours.
As our pc drive is a bit full, I defragged and tried again, but still the
'copying files' popup said 10 days...
I have temporarily given up on the copy to cd until I've sought advice on
what I am presumably doing wrong!
What is so special about these .eml files that they copy even more slowly
than video?
(I know you will say "Why not copy them as .dbxs?" but I doubt that the
recipient would know what to do with them if I gave them to him like this -
and he's not that good at following instructions...;-)
Cheers,
S
Bruce Hagen
folder and it is 173MB, it should burn quite quickly. Have you tried to burn
something not OE related? Search in My Documents for a folder or folders
that equal roughly the same size. If they burn just as slow, then it is not
OE related for sure.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA
"spamlet" <spam.m...@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:uYT1E9Rk...@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
Steve Cochran
of eml files in a single directory. Try zipping the files into one zip file
and then see if you can copy it to CD.
One can import a single dbx file manually: www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx#imp1
Also, my OEX program (www.oehelp.com/OEX/) will allow dbx files (not huge
ones) to be imported from a network share or from a CD and it will also
remove duplicate messages.
steve
"spamlet" <spam.m...@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:uYT1E9Rk...@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
spamlet
I can right click on 170meg of movies and they will copy in a minute or two,
but these .eml files/folders, spend an age writing each individual file
slowly and visibly one at a time. In fact I'm now getting pop ups saying as
much as 23 days to copy just 16meg!?
Initially these files were made in a 'user' account on the pc rather than my
Administrator one, so I thought that might have something to do with it. But
copying them - at normal pc speed (?!) - to my profile, the files will still
only copy to cd at glacial speed. The same applies to those I copied to a
flash drive. Try writing them to CD from there and it's one at a time, for
ever!
Just plain Weird!
I'll pop a copy of this on to the XP group as well,
Cheers,
S
"Bruce Hagen" <Nos...@mymail.invalid> wrote in message
news:Oa00ObSk...@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>I don't think the problem is with OE. If you drag messages to a Windows
>folder and it is 173MB, it should burn quite quickly. Have you tried to
>burn something not OE related? Search in My Documents for a folder or
>folders that equal roughly the same size. If they burn just as slow, then
>it is not OE related for sure.
> --
>
spamlet
none too savvy recipient; which is why I chose not to go down the dbx route,
but I'll see what happens with a zip now.)
Cheers,
S
"Steve Cochran" <scoc...@oehelp.com> wrote in message
news:uTBPCRUk...@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
spamlet
Zipper says it can't make a zip file from these as some of the emls contain
characters that it can't put in a zip file.
This may therefore have something to do with the way emails are
automatically named when they are dragged out of OE. The subject line is
taken as the file name (which is why I had a lot of trouble renaming quite a
few that had the same subject), and some of the subjects include exclamation
marks, squares, and other 'forbidden' characters.
I also now notice that when I open the cd-r's properties sheet in My
Computer, it says file system 'RAW', am I supposed to try and change this to
Fat32/NTFS or similar first - can't offhand see a format disc option?
Any further tips?
S
"spamlet" <spam.m...@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:uZYgXrUk...@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
Michael Santovec
highlight all the EML files (or perhaps better the folder containing
them and the Right click and Send To, Compressed (Zip) folder. You
shouldn't have any problem with the file names.
Fat32/NTFS doesn't normally apply to a CD.
Are you using the Right Click and Send To, CD to write to CD. That
should be reasonably quick. Especially with a zip file.
If instead you care using Windows Explorer to copy to the CD, then you
may have installed some software that treats a CD-RW similar to a
regular disk drive. Although it's convenient, it's very inefficient,
especially with a lot of small files.
--
Mike - http://pages.prodigy.net/michael_santovec/techhelp.htm
"spamlet" <spam.m...@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:Ok0iC3U...@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
spamlet
As it happens I do have a couple of discs formatted with Direct CD, but have
not had to use them because flash drives came in and then I had no need for
moving files by the disc method. I will have a go and see if the .eml files
move more quickly to them though.
As for the 'right click and send to' method, this is my normal method of
copying files.
As I have said above, 'send to Zip folder' option is not being allowed
because 'some of the files contain characters that cannot be zipped'. These
are because some of the mails were from orientals whose addresses only
translated as squares and other odd symbols, and because many of the subject
lines contain symbols that are not usually allowed in file names (I
suspect). That said, I do not see why XP will allow me to have these as
names in it's normal NTFS system without affecting their movability, until
it comes to writing them to cd.
Last night I did try again, when I noticed that an initial 'time remaining
23 days' dropped to '3 hours' after a few minutes, but, when I let it get on
with it, the 'time remaining' kept climbing steadily so that after an hour
or so it had got back up to '13 hours remaining'
Weird!
S
"Michael Santovec" <michael_...@prodigy.net> wrote in message
news:utG8i9Xk...@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
spamlet
in about 5 minutes.
There does thus seem to be a problem with writing .eml files to 'RAW' CD-Rs
(Now, can I get the Direct CD stuff onto anyone else's pc in a way that they
will understand...)
Curioser...
S
"spamlet" <spam.m...@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:e$sYb2ckJ...@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
Steve Cochran
rather than the eml files, but it should work that way as well.
steve
"spamlet" <spam.m...@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:umREDAdk...@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
spamlet
Actually I can now refine my observations a bit better:
When I formatted a CD-R for data recording with Roxio's Direct CD;
Initially it lost the 'Send to DirectCD' option on the right click (no idea
why), and trying to drag the files to the folder itself, got a message that
the file names were too long;
However, when ejecting the CD ('as is) and reloading, the right click option
was back;
On a whim, ejected the CD again so that copying would go into whatever is
buffering the copy;
This got rid of the 'file name too long' notice, but duplicated the ever
increasing copy time that I was getting with ordinary CD copying methods;
Shoved formatted CD back in: Whoosh: massive increase in writing speed, and
all completed in a couple of minutes!
So, appears to be a buffering issue in temporary storage: if there is a
directly writable CD on hand, buffer does not saturate: but if there is the
normal 'waiting room' step one gets with a RAW CD, or no CD, all slows to
infinity.
I did suspected a buffering effect earlier, and cleared my temp files and
defragged, but that made no difference, so it must be a different sort of
buffer somewhere else, that can handle big files if it can write straight to
disc but not otherwise. On the other hand, then why did it allow me to copy
a 170meg video with no problems?...
Most likely, whatever is the buffer is only set to handle a certain number
of files: one big file is OK but thousands of little ones not.
Anyhow, I now have them copied!
Hooray!
But any more technical details on all this from anyone in the know, would be
appreciated.
Like, anyone know where the 'buffer' is, and how its number of files
capacity can be increased?
Cheers,
S
"Steve Cochran" <scoc...@oehelp.com> wrote in message
news:11482D6D-804D-4295...@microsoft.com...
spamlet
When I formatted a CD-R for data recording with Roxio's Direct CD;
Initially it lost the 'Send to DirectCD' option on the right click (no idea
why), and trying to drag the files to the folder itself, got a message that
the file names were too long;
However, when ejecting the CD ('as is) and reloading, the right click option
was back;
On a whim, ejected the CD again so that copying would go into whatever is
buffering the copy;
This got rid of the 'file name too long' notice, but duplicated the ever
increasing copy time that I was getting with ordinary CD copying methods;
Shoved formatted CD back in: Whoosh: massive increase in writing speed, and
all completed in a couple of minutes!
So, appears to be a buffering issue in temporary storage: if there is a
directly writable CD on hand, buffer does not saturate: but if there is the
normal 'waiting room' step one gets with a RAW CD, or no CD, all slows to
infinity.
I did suspect a buffering effect earlier, and cleared my temp files and
defragged, but that made no difference, so it must be a different sort of
buffer somewhere else, that can handle big files if it can write straight to
disc but not otherwise. On the other hand, then why did it allow me to copy
a 170meg video with no problems?...
Most likely, whatever is the buffer is only set to handle a certain number
of files: one big file is OK but thousands of little ones not.
Anyhow, I now have them copied!
Hooray!
But any more technical details on all this from anyone in the know, would be
appreciated.
Like, anyone know where the 'buffer' is, and how its number of files
capacity can be increased?
Cheers,
S
"spamlet" <spam.m...@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:uC9sNpUk...@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
Bruce Hagen
all that techy myself.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA
"spamlet" <spam.m...@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:OmCmC6dk...@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
spamlet
When I went to view the files that seemed to have been copied to the
formatted cd, it turned out to be blank!
Then when I then put in a new, unformatted, cd and selected 'eject', I then
got a message saying write these files to CD, and it went ahead and copied
the lot to the cd and they were then available without having had to format
the disc!
When I tried to repeat this to get a backup copy on another disc, it got as
far as the writing stage but soon got a pop up to say it couldn't copy blah
blah because the filename wasn't right!!!
All this time the -RW disc formatted as drag and drop continues to work
fine.
Interestingly, when I put in the -RW cd with the files on, opened the cd
folder and removed the cd, the files remained on screen and could all be
opened even though the disc wasn't there.
Noticing the address bar said they were in the windows cd writing folder, I
thought that this may have been the trick, but when I tried with another new
disc, it got a little way and then came up with the filename not copyable
message again!
So I really cannot understand what is going on after all!
At least I have the -RW version and the one fluke -R version now though, and
they seem to open properly when trying them on my laptop.
I'll run them back into OE and preserve them as dbxs as well just to make
sure: who knows, there might just be something weird about my pc/xp settings
and cd/dvd writer combination.
So it's taken me 5 days to do something I thought was going to be straight
forward, as a favour, and I still don't know what the problem was!
All the best,
S
"Bruce Hagen" <Nos...@mymail.invalid> wrote in message
news:Oo1l8Cek...@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
Bruce Hagen
this way does not work, then I doubt it is OE.
To backup messages to a readable CD:
Create a folder on your Desktop, then in Outlook Express open the folder
with the messages you want to save. Highlight one message, then Ctrl+A will
highlight them all, (or hold the Ctrl button down while you select only the
messages you want), Now, drag and drop them to the folder on your Desktop.
(Easiest if the folder shortcut is on the Taskbar).
Now you can copy that folder to a CD and you will be able to read the
messages on the CD by double-clicking on them.
The downside of this is that messages that have the same subject will be
overwritten. To avoid this, purchase:
DBXtract:
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/Default.aspx
Now, on the other hand, if you get OEQB, everything in OE is backed up to a
folder you create during installation. If you copy this folder to CD, you
can get OE back the exact way it was should a reformat be needed. I just
reformatted a few months ago and I got all three identities back with rules
and all my custom settings in less than 15 minutes.
This freeware tool backs up everything in OE in seconds. Disregard what is
written in red. That is referring to a different program.
Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB):
http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA
"spamlet" <spam.m...@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:u33s$cfkJH...@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
spamlet
While I was juggling with all this, I happened to try dragging an email from
OE directly into the open inbox of the new online Yahoo account, just to see
what happened.
To my surprise the little 'copying/dragging file' cursor icon stayed in the
'allowed' - ie not the 'No Entry' sign - mode as it hovered over the Yahoo
folder, but when I actually let go of the file IE crashed.
Is there a way to drag files into accounts open in IE like this?
Cheers,
S
spamlet
But at least I have a couple of fluke copies and can still save the dbxs
too, in case I need to do all this again...
Cheers,
S
"spamlet" <spam.m...@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:%23CsZD1d...@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
spamlet
Wasn't aware of anything in these that would have helped me here though: are
you implying that DBXtract might have tidied up the subject fields so that a
cd index would accept them as file names, whereas simple drag and drop in
Explorer would not?
Cheers,
S
"Bruce Hagen" <Nos...@mymail.invalid> wrote in message
news:ueCfchfk...@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
Bruce Hagen
keep messages that had the same subject from being overwritten.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA
"spamlet" <spam.m...@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:uLMuw5fk...@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
Michael Santovec
that way.
--
Mike - http://pages.prodigy.net/michael_santovec/techhelp.htm
"spamlet" <spam.m...@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:#hNE$sfkJH...@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
spamlet
Further hassles with cd writer door refusing to open and hardware having to
be disabled, and sometimes recognising my cd-rs and sometimes not, rather
indicates there is a problem with the pioneer unit, which I have only used
for dvd up till now...
Thanks for your help as always,
S
"Bruce Hagen" <Nos...@mymail.invalid> wrote in message
news:%23Bcyu$fkJHA...@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
spamlet
S
"Michael Santovec" <michael_...@prodigy.net> wrote in message
news:e0YVRHgk...@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
Steve Cochran
probably a better route. XP has troubles with several thousand files in a
single directory and such will slow things down quite a bit, which is
probably what happened when trying to burn to CD, as it has to put thousands
of entries into its directory entries as well as the message bodies on the
CD itself.
steve
"spamlet" <spam.m...@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:u4rY%23sfkJ...@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
spamlet
of the mail contains unzippable characters and I am not going to go through
them one at a time to retitle whichever ones it does not like.
Anyhow, through various bits of fluke and trickery I now have copies of both
the .eml files and the .dbxs on disc and on flash drive at last, so I've got
what I wanted despite the problems, and I'll just have to chalk this up to
some as yet undefined glitch which will probably disappear with a bit of
upgrading.
All the best,
S
"Steve Cochran" <scoc...@oehelp.com> wrote in message
news:2D7AE9DC-2AD4-4C12...@microsoft.com...
FromTheRafters
wondering if someone could enlighten me as to just what an
"unzippable character" would be? Google wasn't friendly to
me today it seems.
"spamlet" <spam.m...@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:eYQzwXqk...@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
spamlet
squares that you get when the programme you are using does not know how to
display the actual character. I did not look for the file and rename it as
there were sure to be too many others that needed changing to make this a
practicable approach.
Similarly when I got messages from the copying to disc process to say the
file names were not allowed, these were ones with characters like spaces
with commas, and exclamation marks and slashes. I don't know if all the
characters that were not allowed by the copying process were the same set as
were not allowed by the zipping engine though.
Nice to know this is being followed by more than those who help with info
and advice.
Cheers,
S
"FromTheRafters" <err...@nomail.afraid.org> wrote in message
news:OUs0IErk...@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
Steve Cochran
You should be able to zip up all the dbx files without a problem.
steve
"spamlet" <spam.m...@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:eYQzwXqk...@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
spamlet
As it happens the .dbx files all copied easily and quickly with no need to
zip.
I'm still looking into upgrading the writer drivers, and possibly firmware.
S
"Steve Cochran" <scoc...@oehelp.com> wrote in message
news:4A87892F-2BD2-4456...@microsoft.com...
spamlet
seem to have partly solved the problem (though I'm not sure which is
responsible for the improvement).
The .eml folders now copy, apparently - though still a lot more slowly than
simply between folders on the hard drive or between hard drives.
However, the folders of .eml files do not seem to always elicit the 'write
these files to disc' options, and often look as if there is nothing waiting
to be written until one tries to do it again and gets messages saying the
file already exists/overwrite.
I found that, at this stage, the Pioneer door would refuse to eject, so it
was presumably doing something that it was not telling about.
I had to disable the drive, then eject the disc then reenable and put the
disc back in, whereupon the files were magically on the disc.
A disc made this way, however, continues to refuse to eject unless the drive
is disabled first!?
All this time, other files such as videos have burned to the discs with the
same drive with no problems.
All very odd.
S
"spamlet" <spam.m...@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:e%23k0Iehk...@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
Bruce Hagen
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA
"spamlet" <spam.m...@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:%23XVqySd...@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
spamlet
It has been quite a puzzle but I seem to be finding ways round it: if not
particularly elegant ones.
Another thing I found during various tests was that my old Roxio basic
authoring prog, even when updated, had a tendency to say (to video files
that I wanted the audio off) 'this file is corrupted' or similar and erase
without trace as a 'punishment'. Copies of the same thing, nonetheless
writing via Windows Media Player with no bother...
Just so long as it keeps us busy eh!
Cheers,
S
"Bruce Hagen" <Nos...@mymail.invalid> wrote in message
news:uL6L$edlJH...@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...