Ameol FAQs Maintenance	< Previous  |  Next >

Q) How do I back up, move and restore my Ameol data?
A)How to easily backup your Ameol data.

Firstly it is good practice to run a folder check on your messagebase. From the Folder menu in Ameol choose Check, select the Main folder and
ensure "Automatically fix any errors found" is ticked. Start the check and then choose Close once it has finished.

The easiest way to backup your Ameol messagebase and address book is to make a copy of your entire C:\Program Files\Ameol2\Data folder and C:\Program Files\Ameol2\Users folder, if you cannot locate them see the section "More detailed information" below.; It is a good idea to backup
these two folders regularly.

You should close Ameol and copy the Data and Users folders to somewhere else on your hard drive or better still to a different hard drive, network drive, or another storage device such as CDROM, memory stick device, Zip disk etc.

How to easily restore most of your data.

Once you have a good, recent copy of your Data and Users folders, you can reinstall Ameol onto the same PC or a different PC. You can delete the default Data and Users folders that were created when you installed Ameol and replace them with your recent backup copies by moving or pasting them into your new Ameol2 directory. When you open Ameol you should see your messages and your address book as they were at the time of that backup.

The latest version of Ameol is available at http://www.ameol.com or in cix:cix.support/files.

More detailed information:

Your messagebase.
Your Ameol messagebase is normally stored in a folder called Data, this is typically located at C:\Program Files\Ameol2\Data. Your email and conference messages are stored in the Data folder as a series of text files, such as Me1000.txt etc.

It is possible to have moved the location of your Data folder, the easiest way to locate exactly where your data is stored is to look in Settings | Directories and see where the data path points to.

Your Address book.
Your address book is stored in the Ameol2\Users\Admin folder, or Ameol2\Users\<Username> folder if you are logging into Ameol as a different user than the default.

You can also backup your address book by either copying the addrbook.dat file in your Ameol2\Users\Admin folder or by exporting your address book from within Ameol by using File | Export | Address Book and exporting it as a .csv text file. This can then be imported using File | Import | Address Book.

Rules and Settings.
Your message rules and many Ameol settings are stored in your Windows registry. For users who feel confident with making changes to their Windows registry, these keys can be backed up and even transferred to a different PC to restore your message rules and settings that may have changed in Ameol from the default setup.

The easiest way is to use a utility program such as AmRegSet.zip, see http://kgolding.co.uk/ameolutils.php for more details. This file is also available in cix:cix.support/files cixfile:cix.support/files:amregset.zip.

For more information on how to manually copy these registry keys see
How do I transfer Ameol and its data contents to a new Hard Disk Drive (HDD)?

WARNING: While many users have used the above methods of transferring their registry data very successfully, it should be noted that editing or changing your Windows registry can cause your Windows operating system to stop working and users do so at their own risk. Care should be taken especially if you intend moving registry keys between different versions of Windows as directory structures and naming may change.

Top | Back to Ameol FAQ's

Q) Help! I seem to have lost my messagebase. What can I do?
A) Do this:

   1. Quit Ameol2.

   2. Go to your Ameol2 directory and rename the data directory to data.old.

   3. Create a new data directory.

   4. Start Ameol2. If it complains it can't find a database file, click New.

   5. Select File|Import, CIX Scratchpad.

   6. In the Import from box, select the path to the data.old directory followed by *.txt. (For example your directory path may be c:\ameol2\data.old\*.txt).

In order to ensure that the messages do not need to be re-read, ensure that the "Respect message attributes" box is checked. But ensure that the "Archive this file after importing" box is not checked.

   7. Ameol2 will rebuild your database using the old text files.

Check your database is OK. (If you are running Ameol2 from more than one Operating System, check it in all OSes) If it is, you can delete the old data.old directory.

Remember to check your free disk space before starting - you'll need about the same size of your data directory as free space.

Top | Back to Ameol FAQ's

Q) How do I transfer Ameol and its data contents to a new Hard Disk Drive (HDD)?
A) The easiest way is to use a utility program such as AmRegSet.zip, see http://kgolding.co.uk/ameolutils.php for more details.

Another, more involved method is described below.

Copy your base Ameol2 folder and its associated directory tree to the new HDD. That will copy all the data, addons and so on. Then fire up Regedit and use Registry|Export Registry File... to export the following registry keys:

      HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\CIX
      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\CIX
      HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\Ameol2

to three files named in a manner for you to remember which relates to which key. (You will now be able to reinstate your settings, rules, etc., later.)

Using a suitable text editor, edit both files you just created changing all references to the old drive letter to the new drive letter.

Now install Ameol2 into the Ameol2 folder on the new HDD into the directory structure as copied previously. (This will set up the registry entries ready for you to import the settings files which you created and edited earlier.) Then fire up Regedit and use Registry|Import Registry File... from the files you created and edited earlier to reinstate your settings, rules, etc.

Please see How do I back up, move and restore my Ameol data? for details on backing up, restoring or moving Ameol to a new PC.
  
How do I transfer Ameol and its data contents to a new Hard Disk Drive (HDD )? is only useful if you are trying to move the registry data manually or if you are trying to move Ameol registry data between 2 different hard drives such as your c: to d: drive.

WARNING: While many users have used the above methods of transferring their registry data very successfully, it should be noted that editing or changing your Windows registry can cause your Windows operating system to stop working and users do so at their own risk. Care should be taken especially if you intend moving registry keys between different versions of Windows as directory structures and naming may change.

Top | Back to Ameol FAQ's

Q) How do I migrate Ameol to new machine?
A) This is essentially the same problem covered in How do I transfer Ameol and its data contents to a new Hard Disk Drive (HDD)? The only thing which isn't covered is the way of getting the data from the old PC to the new PC. You can use any method at your disposal.
Examples include:

   1. Network the 2 PCs and copy the data from the old machine to the new machine.

   2. Transfer the data using a zip drive or memory stick device.

   3. Copy the data to a CD.

   4. Connect the 2 PCs using a null-modem cable via the serial ports and transmit the data from the old to the new PC.

   5. Span the data across several hundred floppies using Winzip.

Top | Back to Ameol FAQ's

Q) How do I use a command line option when running Ameol?
A) You can do this by right-clicking the Ameol icon on your desktop and select Properties. Now select the Shortcut tab and add option with a leading space to the end of whatever is in the "Target:" box and click OK.

Should you want to do this as an alternative and yet retain the original properties for your Ameol icon, then duplicate the icon first. You can do that by right-clicking on the icon and select Copy. Now right-click on the desktop and select Paste. You will now have another icon for Ameol with "Copy of" preceding whatever title the original icon has. You can rename the icon by right- clicking on it and select Rename. Type in the new name and press the <Enter> key. Now proceed as in the first paragraph above with either icon.

Top | Back to Ameol FAQ's

Q) My Ameol messagebase seems to be getting very large. Why?
A) The short answer is that you have never run a purge. Even if you have run selective purges, e-mails with attachments may be taking up an inordinate amount of space since the original text (undecoded) is retained until a purge is performed. This is also true of any messages which you may have deleted. So it is worth while running a purge from time to time to recover wasted space. Note that you have the opportunity of setting the option to "Purge only messages marked for deletion" which will cause the space to be recovered even if there are no messages marked for deletion.

Note that the values you have in Settings|Preferences... Attachments tab affect this process. You need to have the "Remove encoded text from message after decode" option ticked. Also if you have the "Save original message to backup file" option ticked purging may not give you back as much disk space as you'd expect since the backup file will eat up disk space. The backup file has a name of the form:

      ATddmmyy.DAT

where 'ddmmyy' is the date when the attachments were decoded. These files reside in your ~\Ameol2\Users\ADMIN directory. (If you are logged on as a different user, then substitute the appropriate value for ADMIN.)

Also remember that if you have the "Store purged messages in backup file" option set in Settings|Purge Settings, you will not recover as much space as you would otherwise -- indeed you may not get any back.

Yet another area where you can reclaim disk space is your attachment directory. Once you no longer require the attachments you have been sent and decoded, you should delete the files created. These are stored in whatever directory you have set up in the "Attachments:" box of Settings|Directories...

Top | Back to Ameol FAQ's

Q) I seem to have a corrupted conference/topic. What can I do?
A)The first thing you should do is to try Ameol's built-in ability to detect and repair a corrupted messagebase:

   1. Go to the In Basket. (Use View|In Basket.)

   2. Select the category/conference/topic in question.

   3. Use Folder|Check..., ensure the "Automatically fix any errors found" option is checked and click the Start button. When the operation is complete, click the Close button. (N.b., You can request that this operation is done on an entire conference or the entire messagebase as well as on an individual topic.)

   4. If this has not corrected the problem, then try to purge the topic in question. Use Folder|Purge. This has been known to work when there is at least one deleted message in the topic.

   5. If this has still not eliminated the problem, then you need to perform the following:

      i.   Go to the In Basket. (Use View|In Basket.)

      ii.  Select the conference/topic in question.

      iii. Export the topic in question to a file with a name of your choice. Use File|Export..., select "CIX Scratchpad"; click the OK button; fill in the "Export to:" box with the drive, destination directory and file name you wish to use (n.b., you can use the folder button to the right of the box to browse your disk); ensure the "All" option in "Range:" is selected; click the Save button. When the operation is complete, click the OK button.

      iv.  Delete ONLY the topic in question ensuring you DO NOT resign it. Use Folder|Delete; click the No button when/if asked if you wish to resign the topic; click the Yes button when asked to confirm the delete.

           N.B., There are some special considerations if you are using this method to delete a mail folder:

           a. You must ensure that the "Protect mail folders from deletion" option is unchecked in Settings|Mail..., General tab before attempting this step.

           b. When you delete a mail folder you delete all the rules associated with it. The rules are stored in the registry, so you need to save these rules first. They are stored in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\CIX\Ameol2\ADMIN\Rules hive. (If you are logged on as a different user, then substitute the appropriate value for ADMIN.)

           c. The export process does not retain the paper clip icons which show at a glance which messages have attachments.

      v.   Re-import the topic from file created in iii. above. Use File|Import...; select "CIX Scratchpad"; click the OK button; fill in the "Import from:" box with the drive, destination directory and file name you created previously (n.b., you can use the folder button to the right of the box to browse your disk); choose the options desired before clicking the Start button.

           N.B., There are some special considerations if you are using this method to fix a mail folder:

           a. You may want to consider checking the "Protect mail folders from deletion" option in Settings|Mail..., General tab.

           b. The import process has the side effect of removing all the paper clip icons which show at a glance which messages have attachments.

Top | Back to Ameol FAQ's

Q) How to I order the conferences in my in basket?
A)Use drag and drop in the in basket window.

Imagine your in-basket (the big "proper" one available via View|In Basket, not the small one attached to the message window) contains the following:

      - folder 1
       \topic
       \topic
       \topic

      - folder 2
       \topic
 
      - folder 3
       \topic
       \topic
 
      - folder 4
       \topic

Now you want to move folder 4 so it is between folder 2 and folder 3. Pick up folder 4 with your mouse and drop it on folder 2, not on folder 3 or on the topic(s) between folders 2 and 3. When dragging and dropping folders the folder will always end up underneath the folder you drop onto. If you try to drop a folder onto a topic you will be told that this is not possible.

Note: It is possible to mark some folders to "Keep at Top" from the right click menu. This will prevent you from dragging these folders down the list.

Top | Back to Ameol FAQ's

Q) The Logs/Blinks topic messages: do I have to read them?
A) No. You can mark them as read automatically. Right-click on the Logs folder in your InBasket, and from the popup menu select Properties (or use Folder|Properties...). Then click the Settings tab and check the "Mark all new messages read" box.

Top | Back to Ameol FAQ's