Re: Problem with Kmail after upgrade to KDE 4. can't read all emails

-------- Original-Nachricht --------
> Datum: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:44:17 +0100
> Von: "Ingo Klöcker" <[email protected]>
> An: [email protected]
> Betreff: Re: [kdepim-users] Problem with Kmail after upgrade to KDE 4.	can\'t read all emails

> On Thursday 15 January 2009, Claus Hausberger wrote:
> > Hello
> >
> > > On Wednesday 14 January 2009, Claus Hausberger wrote:
> > > > Hello
> > > >
> > > > I upgrade to the latest OpenSuse 11.1 with KDE 4.1. Before I used
> > > > OpenSuse 8.2 with Kmail from KDE 3.
> > > >
> > > > I made a backup of the old $HOME/Mail folder where all my Emails
> > > > are.
> > >
> > > How did you create the backup? Onto which medium did you copy
> > > $HOME/Mail?
> >
> > I copied everything to a mounted windows partition (FAT 32) as root.
> > Before I copied it back to the kmail directory, I changed the user
> > and group back to the original user.
> 
> I feared that you could have done this. Unfortunately, it is very likely 
> that the backup does not contain the messages you are missing, i.e. 
> they are lost. I'm terribly sorry. :-(
> 
> The problem with FAT32 is that it does not like filenames containing 
> colons. The filenames of the files your mail was stored in most likely 
> have contained colons (because KMail uses the Maildir format for 
> storing mail). Those files are stored in folders called "cur" and "new" 
> below the filesystem folders corresponding to your mail folders. 
> Copying those files to the FAT32 partition will have failed.
> 
> Two suggestions for preventing similar catastrophes in the future:
> - Create a partition for the system and another partition for the /home 
> folder. This way you can easily reinstall the system without having to 
> backup /home. Of course, you should still backup /home anyway before 
> you do the upgrade/reinstallation just in case something goes wrong.
> - Whenever you backup data, verify that the backup actually worked 
> correctly. An easy check is comparing the number of files and their 
> cumulative size. Konqueror shows those numbers in the folders' 
> Properties dialog.
> 
> I know that those tips come too late. I'm sorry. :-(
> 

thanks, Ingo. So I blame Microsoft :-)
the cur and new directories are indeed empty.

what would happen if I use tar/gz to zip the mail folder and then move it to FAT 32.
when I copy it back to ext3 before unzipping it, the files should still be ok. Right?
that would be useful if I want to carry my mails on a USB stick which is FAT 32 formatted.

Claus


> 
> Regards,
> Ingo

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