PC Win: Err Msg: A Folder Could Not Be Accessed

• Microsoft Mail for PC Networks, versions 3.0, 3.0b, and 3.2

SYMPTOMS

When you access shared or group folders and you select or double-click a shared folder, the following error message may appear:

   A folder could not be accessed

   The folder could not be completely deleted.

CAUSE

When a private, shared, or group folder is created, it is given a unique ID number. This unique number is generated from the SERIALNO.IDX file. The Microsoft Mail MS-DOS workstation can access folder names from 00000000.FLD through FFFFFFFF.FLD. Microsoft Mail for Windows should be able to access the same range of shared and group folders; however, it can only access folder names from 00000000.FLD through 00FFFFFF.FLD. When a shared or group folder has an ID number of 01000000 or greater, the Windows client displays the above error message.

The MS-DOS client has no problem with folder names in this range.

RESOLUTION

The following is a temporary workaround that allows you to access shared and group folders that can't be accessed by the Windows client:

Reset SERIALNO.IDX to 00 00 00 00

1. Create a backup copy of and run DEBUG on a backup of the SERIALNO.IDX file. For example, type:

         debug serialno.idx
   

   NOTE: Perform this operation on the backup only.

2. At the hyphen (-) prompt, type the following and then press ENTER to display the value of the counter:

         d100 103
   

   The following is an example of a bad counter value:

         xxxx:0100 3C 56 4F 4D
   

   This is equivalent to a folder name of 4D4F563C.FLD, which is out of the Windows client range.

3. To correct the bad counter value, reset the count back to 00000000 by typing the following and then pressing ENTER:

         f 100,103,0
   

4. To verify that the values are reset to zeros, type the following at the hyphen prompt:

         d100 103
   

5. To save the corrections, type W at the hyphen prompt. The following message will appear:

         Writing 00004 bytes
   

   This message indicates that the data was written to the file.

6. At the hyphen prompt, type Q to quit DEBUG.

1. Copy the newly modified SERIALNO.BAK over the original SERIALNO.IDX.

Recover the Problem Folder

The owner or creator of the shared and group folders should perform the following steps:

1. Use the Microsoft Mail MS-DOS client to create a temporary working folder. Move the mail message from the problem folder to the temporary folder.

2. Delete the problem folder and then re-create it. Because the SERIALNO.IDX file has been reset to zero, a new folder will have the folder-name number within the range the Windows client can handle.

3. Move the mail message back to the original folder.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in versions 3.0, 3.0b, and 3.2 of Microsoft Mail for Windows. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.