[garilou]

This is only the first (and least) of my new problems.
I’ve been using WinFaxPro 10 for years on this computer without problem.
(Windows XP Home).
Today, I open the Message Manager and instantly receive the message:
“The following error occurred when attempting to open a folder. “Disk error” A system error occurred. Invalid drive”

I had 3 phonebooks, one the default “My Phone book” where a few numbers were stored. I could access those.

The 2 other ones, when I try to access them generate the message written above.

Since I make regularly backups on a separate drive, I tried to restore the phone books. Nothing happened.

I have tried everything (except reinstalling the program):
I have restored my computer to the date where I had sent my last Fax. Tried again: always the same problem.

I have checked in all ways my phone modem, it works perfectly. It looks like I have lost only the phone books (luckily). All receive and send logs are there and most important all attachments that I often need are there.

[JohnD]

From the error message you describe, it appears that your phonebook files were located in a different folder, possibily on a different drive

the error indicates that the storage device which WinFax is using to retreive the phonebooks no longer exists. (Did you change hardware recently?)

[garilou]

Thanks for your prompt replies

The phonebooks were on the same drive as the program, and where they have always been, my main hard disk, and only the phonebooks were not accessible. And no, I have not changed any hardware.
The back-up were on a separate hard disk, and the path to the back-up that WinFax showed was the right one. They were in a special Data file created by Winfax in the “Programs” section, and not in the Application data. I kept wondering if I should change that without loosing something, that’s why I made back-ups each time I had something new in the data.

A total mystery for me.

If it were just for the phone books, I would not consider re-installing the program, especially considering that I was unable to recover the back-ups. Further on the next post.

[Administrator]

WinFax stores its phonebook “path” information in a Windows registry key,

The exact key location is as follows:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREDelrinaCommSuite7.0Phonebooks

In this key, you should have sub-keys for each phonebook you have defined in WinFax. In your case, you’ll likely have 3 sub-keys named after the phonebooks you have.

For example:

If you have three phonebooks, the default will be “My Phonebook” and the other two are “Phonebook Name 2” and “Phonebook Name 3” (which would actually be named after the phonebooks you have)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREDelrinaCommSuite7.0PhonebooksMy Phonebook

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREDelrinaCommSuite7.0Phonebooks<>

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREDelrinaCommSuite7.0Phonebooks<>

These keys will have the exact filename and path to where WinFax is looking for your phonebooks, in another key called “Path”

Path contains the full filename of the phonebook, for example:

C:Program FilesSymantecWinFaxDataMY-PH-BK
or
C:Program FilesWinFaxDataMY-PH-BK

These are the two default locations where WinFax Phonebooks are located. If it points to a file that does not exist, you will get the error message you described above.

[garilou]

Thank you again. I replied to the other post first. Now I shall look into the information you just gave to me, and I’ll tell you what I found (or did not).I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your help!

I hope this will help other people too eventually!

[garilou]

Back again.
I went to see the Windows registry key.
Here is what I found as for the path.
The first lost phonebook named “Louise” has the following path:
C: Documents and settings”my full name”Application Data SymantecPhone BookLouise.

Same for the other lost phone book except for the name: Peter instead of Louise.

But in my folder C: Documents and settings”my full name”Application Data, I have absolutely nothing like that, and can’t remember I have ever had: My husband installed the program years ago, and maybe he did not create – or have WinFax create – that folder.
Something really must have changed, because those 2 Phonebooks used to work properly since not long.

As to the “My Phone Book, the path is like one of those you suggested:
C:Program FilesSymantecWinFaxDataMY-PH-BK, but there I find all following files that include in their name:

MY-PH-BK. As you can see, some are very old. I guess the real one (which includes very few numbers) would be the biggest one (25 KB).
=

Date modified

MY-PH-BK2.WFD 1KB 2008-04-24
MY-PH-BK2.WFG 1KB 2008-04-24
MY-PH-BK2.WFX 2KB 2008-04-24
MY-PH-BK.WFB 1KB 2005-11-11
MY-PH-BK.WFD 3KB 2008-04-24
MY-PH-BK.WFF 1KB 2008-04-24
MY-PH-BK.WFG 1KB 2008-04-24
MY-PH-BK.WFR 0KB 2005-11-11
MY-PH-BK.WFX 25KB 2008-04-24
MY-PH-BKS.WFD 1KB 2005-11-11
MY-PH-BKS.WFG 1KB 2006-04-29
MY-PH-BKS.WFX 3KB 2005-11-11

But I don’t trust myself to change anything, neither there nor in the registry edit… since even that default Phone Book does not work properly: when I choose one of the recipients, the number that appears on the Fax to be sent is perfectly OK, but the connection never works. Since yesterday, the only Fax I was able to send properly was the one when I entered the number by hand without using the the Phone Book entry.

Does this help you … to keep helping me?

I would really prefer to have all my data in the C: Documents and settings”my full name”Application Data Symantec

that does not exist right now.

Is it too late to change that without loosing my other (much more important) files, like my receive and sent logs and all my files documents.

Thanks again,

[Administrator]

well, it looks like those were the previous locations of your phonebooks, but they are no longer there — this is why you get the error when you start WinFax.

So the question is, where are these 2 winfax phonebooks located now?

You can do a search for the following files to determine where these files are on your system:

Search for:

louise*.wf*



and,



peter*.wf*

this should search your entire hard drive for any files that start the the word “louise” or “peter” and have the “wf” extension (such as louise.wfb, louise.wfx … etc)

Its also possible that you’ve logged in as another user in Windows, since it appears the “Phone book” folder was created manually. WinFax does not create this, therefore, you would not have the “Phone book” folder underneath the Symantec folder if you log in to window s with a different account name.

"C:Documents and settingsApplication DataSymantecPhone Book"

Does “” match what was listed in the Windows registry for the WinFax phonebooks path?

Edited By Moderator on 1209056255

[garilou]

You wrote:

“So the question is, where are these 2 WinFax phonebooks located now? “

Yes that is the question or one of them…

I am totally confused. The mystery gets deeper and deeper.

I made the searches that you proposed. At first I found nothing.
Then I refined the search to look in hidden files: there they appeared in the AllUsersDocumentsApplication DataSymantecPhone Books, but when I looked the AllUsersDocumentsApplication Data Folder, there was absolutely no Symantec folder at all.
I made sure that there were no hidden files in the AllUsersDocumentsApplication Data… made a refresh, I still can’t see any Symantec folder.

I have never seen such a thing!

I live alone here, unless I have phantom visitors (and I do have a mighty firewall), no one ever logs in as “another user”. If one of my sons visits me occasionally and needs my computer, (which is rare, they tend to use my late husband’s computer that is always running 3 feet away from mine) the computer is already turned on, and they will use it to surf the Web.

You wrote:
“it appears the “Phone book” folder was created manually. WinFax does not create this, therefore, you would not have the “Phone book” folder underneath the Symantec folder if you log in to window s with a different account name.
Since I did not install the program myself, I can’t swear, but I remember that Peter used always to say: “Install the way the program suggests, never take initiatives…”
Maybe he did try to create that file, because most programs install their data in Application Data and the application data were globally backed-up every night… Maybe… he will never be able to explain that to me anymore.

But since I can’t find them, I might as well consider those books as lost.
If I consider them as lost, can I destroy them through the regedit.exe? (The program it-self does not allow me to delete them: it always give that disk error.)

Since I still have all the logs, I could find the fax numbers easily.
===============================

But back to the beginning, because I do not want to take to much of you time:

Assuming those 2 phone books were not to be found, what could I do so that my default “My Phone Book”.. would work… I mean that I could send a fax to a recipient whose fax data are entered in the phone book, and that I do not need to write the number by hand each time, since this was the only way I was able to send a fax since 2 days.

At the end of your Post, you write:

“C:Documents and settingsApplication DataSymantecPhone Book”

and you ask:

Does “” match what was listed in the Windows registry for the WinFax phonebooks path?

The answer is yes, but as I explained, when I simply look in my files, “C:Documents and settingsApplication DataSymantecPhone Book” simply does not exist.

Many questions… I know… I hate to be so dependant.

Thank you dear Moderator (or Moderators?)

[Administrator]

double-click My Computer (or click Start, point to ‘My Computer”)
Click Tools, Folder Options.
Click the View Tab.
– Under Hidden Files & Folders. Select “Show hidden files and folders”
Click OK.

Now, go to the same folder you that has been missing, it should appear “faded” , indicating it is a “hidden folder”, right-click on the Symantec folder

Click properties.
A dialog box should appear.
Uncheck “Hidden” in the File Attributes area.
click OK (If prompted , select all files & sub-folders)

The folder should now be visible.

[garilou]

Dear Moderator(s),
I understand very well that you do not know me, and that you try to help me as well as you can.
Although I am not a high level specialist, I am also not a total beginner.

I wrote it in my last post:

“I made sure that there were no hidden files in the AllUsersDocumentsApplication Data… made a refresh, I still can’t see any Symantec folder.”

When I found the files while doing a search including hidden files, the first thing that I did was just what you now tell me to do: the files are not there or at least totally invisible.

If I have to abandon the idea that I could recover those phonebooks, I won’t make a drama about it, but I wounder how come I never got an error message when I scrupulously made my back-ups each time I changed something in WinFax.

I am really sorry to give you and/or your co-moderators so much trouble, but my trouble is very annoying, and I guess for you it’s a challenge too.

So please, don’t let me down, your team seems to know a lot and to be so willing to help, I am amazed!

Louise

[Administrator]

If a Windows search found those files, then those files exist. Are you sure the path you listed is correct? Double check the full path of those files found with Search. Compare with Explorer by right-clicking any one of the found files, and clicking Open Containing Folder.
This will open the folder where these files are located.

Now all is required is to match the path/filename of the phonebooks with the proper registry key that I mentioned in the previous messages. Assuming that the phonebook files are all valid, and working, then WinFax should be able to find them when you start WinFax and load the proper phonebooks.

[garilou]

Thank you so much!
I have found them… I would never have thought!
The search showed a path :
C:documents and settingAll UsersDocumentsApplication DataSymantecPhone books.
But when I opened the folder
C:Documents and SettingAll Users the was NO “Documents” folder
The name was “Shared Documents “and when opened, this folder changes automatically to Documents in which there is another Application Data and there they were!

I have so many Application data folders, (I must have 5!) they are like Russian dolls ???

Anyway, 2 last questions, and I’ll leave you (I really hope) in peace.

Question 1:

In that folder: C:documents and settingAll UsersDocumentsApplication DataSymantec
I have 4 sub-folders:
1. Coverpages. This one I really don’t need, I have my cover Page in C:Program FilesSymantecWinFaxCovers
2. Phone books: the one I need to move
3. Shared in which I have an empty message folder, and “something” called “MyProfile.UserProfile” described as a LiveReg user profile (very old: 2005) that I cannot in no way find through search… Do I need that?
4. WinFax Data where a file “MY BACKUP DATA.WFA” that I find no where in the C:Program FilesSymantecWinFax: I think it is not useful anymore, since I make my back-ups on a separate hard disk.

Should I simply move the Phone books folder back in C:Program FilesSymantecWinFaxData and then correct the paths in the registry? And forget about the other ones?

Question 2:
2.1 Where are the scanned files kept as attachments saved? Are they in the C:Program FilesSymantecWinFax?
2.2 And where are all the sent and received logs? I still have access to them when I open the program, so I guess there ARE somewhere but there are so many files in pile there, and I do not understand what is what, and losing them would be THE catastrophe.

Thanks, and I’m sure part of your answer will help others too…

Louise

[Administrator]

I suggest you rename the paths to indicate the path where your phonebooks are located now instead of copying/moving or deleting files.

The path to where all your data files are stored are indicated within the program itself, when you click on Help, About in WinFax.

Attachments can be stored anywhere, but are usually stored in the same path indicated above. To confirm, have to look in your attachments view in WinFax to determine the physical location of these files.

.WFA files are WinFax Archive (Backup Files) created when using the Backup/Restore option in WinFax PRO.

Deleting any folders could cause additional problems in WinFax (or any other application that may be using these folders/files) so I don’t recommend it.

[garilou]

Hi!
Just want to say thank you!
I have now settled everything, recovered my lost phone books!
And I have learned to find my way through the registry edit, and I guess that will help me in other circumstances.

I have to learn a lot the hard way, be it in the computer, or running the snow blower or the tractor!

When my husband died, so many said I wouldn’t make it over the winter, we had the hardest winter in more than 50 years, and I went though all by my-self!

Now comes the spring! My first flowers for you!

You (or all of you) have been a great help!

It like with your good dentist, I love you a lot, but I wish I won’t need your services too soon again 🙂

Thanks again,

Louise

[Administrator]

thanks, glad to hear.

if you find our service valuable you may want to consider becoming a Premium Subscriber.
http://www.getfaxing.com/services.htm

[Author]

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