Nick Keck wrote: > Am I correct to think if I hold down the four keys and hit option during > start up causing a rebuild, I've created "old" files I can then store > elsewhere that contain everything that's in my current PowerMail vault? > My plan then is to move the results to another area completely, like a > DVD (I am aware that DVDs are not eternal).
In a word .... NO. When the database is rebuilt, PowerMail retains your original bloated database and adds ".old" to its name to differentiate it from the new, svelte version. The visible data in the new and old databases are identical; the only difference is all the emails that you deleted, which are no longer visible but still exist as uncharted data within the database. When the database is rebuilt, that no-longer-visible data is trimmed away. As soon as you confirm that the new database works properly (by virtue of being able to access all the mail in your folders) you can trash the ".old" files. If you want to back up your PowerMail data, it is certainly a good idea to burn the entire "PowerMail Files" folder, but doing so gives you a backup of ALL of your emails rather than an archive of "old" emails. > If I immediately open PowerMail's folders and select and send to trash > (or delete message immediately) the files I've got stored, am I correct > that I'll end up only with "current files" (those that I've not deleted) > in the database. Hey, slow down! :-) I'm not sure what you mean by "immediately" in the reference to managing PowerMail folders. Any time you delete an email and then empty the PowerMail trash, the deleted emails are not "current" and, in fact, they are theoretically gone forever. Those emails that you haven't trashed are still available within your mail database and thus are "current files". > In the future, if I want to access the old files I've stored on the DVD, > all I need to do is to move them into the "current PowerMail > folder" (moving out the "then-current" files) and then be able to access > the information. You now understand that this idea of handling the old files makes no sense. > This is the solution I've envisioned to reduce the size of the storage > files I've created. I wish to continue to be able to access those files > in the future (many are magazine inputs that I may need to access downstream). As you can see, all you are accomplishing is reducing the size of your email database, not creating an archive solution. However, there are ways to archive emails in PowerMail, and I'm sure that somebody who has done that will contribute to this thread. > Appreciate the advice of this august group. We're august now, but before Tuesday we were july. ;-) ---Jay
