Illegal Operation

All of a suddent, after years of use, when I try to bring up Eudora I
get that I am performing an illegal operation and the program will be
shut down.  I reloaded the program but it still gives me the same
message and I can't bring Eudora up.  This began two days ago when I
noticed that my computer clock was on PM when it should have been AM.
so i changed the clock to AM.  Ever since, I keep getting this illegal
message and bring up Eudora.  I set the clock back to PM but it still
wouldn't work.  Any suggestions?  I don't want to lose my address book
and saved messages.  Thanks.

In article < XXXX@XXXXX.COM >,  XXXX@XXXXX.COM  says...


  Try:
  Restoring the Eudora windows back to their original positions
  1. Close Eudora
  2. Edit the Eudora.ini file and remove this line:
     Commercial32Version=16
  3. Restart Eudora

  Then, if that does not work . . .
  You can reset many of the Eudora.ini Parms other than your POP3 and SMTP
  information by holding the Shift and Ctrl keys while selecting
  Tools | Options
  --
  Over and Out
  Daniel Jacobson

I eliminated the Commercial32Version=16, but I still cannot bring it
up.  One more thing I left out.  Just before the illegal operation box
pops up, there is a box entitled "Out-of-Date Table of Contents" pops
up. However, the illegal operations box blocks it so I can't read it.
Even if I move the illegal operations box, everything underneath it is
blank.  Your help is appreciated.

On 13 Mar 2005 04:27:35 GMT,  XXXX@XXXXX.COM  (Daniel Jacobson)

bgreenberg < XXXX@XXXXX.COM > wrote in 




It would be easier if we knew which toc file was supposed to be out of 
date.  Can't you use Alt-Tab to switch between the alert boxes so you can 
read it?

If you can find out, just delete the offending toc.  You'll lose some 
info, and all deleted emails that were not koshered out by compacting will 
be back.  

First of all, you could copy all mbx and toc file to a different directory 
(backup) then rename _all_but_one mbx file as mbx.old toe prevent it from 
being read as a mailbox file.  Leave the tocs.  If Eudora starts, fine, 
start renaming one mbx file at a time back to the .mbx extension.  Of 
course, turn off Eudora as you do these renaming things.

When you find the offending mbx file, exit Eudora and delete the toc file.

Let us know how it works out.

-- 
Best regards
Han 
email address is invalid

I can't use ALT-Tab so I can read the Out of Date Table of Contents
box.  Your other suggestion may work but I am not that computer
literate to understand what you were trying to say in the paragraph
that begins, "First of all, you could copy..."  Any help you could
offer would be greatly appreciated.

This may be a clue.  I went to Windows Explorer-Eudora.  Out.mbx
3/10/05 4:37PM and Out.toc 3/10/05 4:39AM.  What does this mean  The
mbx show PM whereas the toc shows AM.  Remember, I changed my clock
from PM to AM when all of this started.  Maybe this is the problem,and
if it is, what do I do to correct it?

I hope the wrapping goes all right when I send this ...  See 
my in-line comments. 

bgreenberg < XXXX@XXXXX.COM > wrote in






<snip>


I hope this is clear.  You need a way to save the current 
state of your files.  The easiest would be to determine in 
which directory the mbx and toc files are, then to copy the 
whole directory to a backup.  That can be a CD, another 
directory, or whatever. 

Is this clear enough?  If not, I would suggest you get help 
from someone knowledgeable who can sit next to you, or direct 
you over the phone. 

These are relatively elementary things when handling a 
computer, but you *do* need to understand them.  Nothing wrong 
with learning new tricks, but ask!!  There is no such thing as 
a dumb question, only questions you didn't (yet) ask. 

When you have done this, it is safe to fool around with the 
other files, because you have a backup. 

Next you need to understand rename.

In an Explorer/Mycomputer window you need to enable viewing 
extensions. 
Choose Tools|Folder options|view.  UNCHECK hide extensions for 
known file types. 

Now select (just 1 click) the file name of the file you want 
to rename, then right-click that file and choose rename. 

Please practice this by renaming the (* means anything)
*.mbx files to *.mbx.old (now there are 2 extensions, but 
Windows looks only at the last one).  

Keep whatever is represented by * the same.  Now your mailbox 
files should be: 

In.mbx.old
Out.mbx.old
Trash.mbx.old
etc.

Do this with all mbx files that you have (tell us how many).

Now when you restart Eudora, it will generate new in, trash, 
and out mailboxes that are empty until you check mail. 

Eudora should work at this point (I think).

Please report back at this point, and we'll help you 
regenerate the other mailboxes.  Please remember where your 
backup is. 





-- 
Best regards
Han 
email address is invalid

bgreenberg < XXXX@XXXXX.COM > wrote in 




Sorry I missed that statement.  That is the clue indeed.  There are ways 
to fool with the date/time stamp of a file, but I don't know for sure how 
to.

Try this:

Make backups of the out.* files
copy the out.mbx file and the out.toc file back into the same directory.  
(Rightclick one then hold down the Ctrl key and right click the other, so 
both are selected).  Lift your fingers off the keyboard.

Hold down Ctrl again, and hit C (Ctrl-C=copy). Lift fingers off keyboard.
Hold down Ctrl again, and hit V (Ctrl-V=paste). Lift fingers off keyboard.
Now you should have files named copy of ...
Check the date/time stamp of these files.  I *think* they should be the 
same, with the current time.

Now you can delete the old out.* files and rename the copies as out.mbx 
and out.toc.

<emphasis>
DON'T LET THE IN OUT AND TRASH MAILBOXES GET TOO BIG.
</emphasis>
Transfer the emails to other mailboxes.  Name them whatever you want to, 
sent, read, Sophie, Jim, whatever is a good one too.

HTH (www.acronymfinder.com)
-- 
Best regards
Han 
email address is invalid

Ok.  I followed your previous message by backing up the mbx and toc
into a new folder.  Then, I renamed the mbx and toc files in the
Eudora directory with an "old" extension.  Now I can get Eudora to
open.  However, the OUT file is now empty.  I noticed on the Eudora
page that there is a new file called "Copy of Out".  That is where my
previous sent sent e-mails are.  Is there something I can do to
restore the files to the Out box?

bgreenberg < XXXX@XXXXX.COM > wrote in 




If you are sure that "out" is empty, exit Eudora, delete out, and rename 
"copy of out" to "out".  Delete out.toc.
Restart Eudora.

You *will* lose some info that was stored in out.toc, and deleted mails may 
re-appear.

-- 
Best regards
Han 
email address is invalid

If I do that, won't I have the same problem with opening Eudor? The
Copy of Out file still has the old date and time.

bgreenberg < XXXX@XXXXX.COM > wrote in 




deleting the "bad" toc file should take care of that.

Of course, if the "copy of out.mbx" and "copy of out.toc" now have the same 
date/time stamp, just renaming them to "out.mbx" and "out.toc" would solve 
the problem as well.

Remember, the problem is that Eudora doesn't like the mbx and toc file to 
have different date/time stamps.  Somewhere there is a setting that adjust 
the leeway you have, but I doubt that can be increased to 12 hours.

-- 
Best regards
Han 
email address is invalid

What I'm confuse about is that the renamed Out.mbx.old changed its
name by itself to Copy of Out file.  So that was the file giving us
the trouble.  The Copy of Out file still has the original date and
time.  The new Out.mbx file and Out.toc file have identical date and
time.  So, if I delete the new Out.mbx file and rename the Copy of Out
file, won't that recreate the original problem?

bgreenberg < XXXX@XXXXX.COM > wrote in 




Let's start anew.
Exit Eudora.
Move all mbx and toc files to another directory, so that no mbx or toc 
files stay in the original directory.
Now copy just the original out.mbx back to the mailbox directory.
Start Eudora.
A new Out.toc should be created.
Does this work?
If not, yell!
If yes, exit eudora, and copy all the other mbx and toc files back (a few 
at a time), then restart Eudora.  Stop Eudora again once this works and 
copy afew more mbx/toc pairs.
Etc.

-- 
Best regards
Han 
email address is invalid

Well, everything worked fine until I moved the original out.mbx back
into Eudora.  Perhaps I did it wrong.  When I moved it back, I had the
problem all over again.  However, I moved it out and things are back
to normal.  I'll just forget about the files in the Out box.  I know
where to find them if I need them.  Thank you very much for helping
me.  I did learn alot, and I can now use Eudora again.