PC Win: Problems with CONVERT.EXE when Upgrading Folders

• Microsoft Mail for Windows, versions 3.0 and 3.0b

SYMPTOMS

You can use CONVERT.EXE to convert your Microsoft Mail for MS-DOS client folders to Microsoft Mail for Windows client folders. Under certain circumstances, this conversion will halt before completing. The folders that are converted appear to be corrupt. Using the FIXFLD.EXE utility does not fix the corruption.

CAUSE

This problem is caused by the Owner field of certain records in the user's IDX file (which is a textized hexadecimal number) containing lowercase hexadecimal digits. CONVERT.EXE in version 3.0 and 3.0b of Microsoft Mail for Windows assumes the hexadecimal numbers are all uppercase.

RESOLUTION

The fix is to force the Owner field to uppercase before converting it to binary. This fix was incorporated in a new version of CONVERT.EXE released with Microsoft Mail for PC Networks version 3.2.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in earlier versions of CONVERT.EXE. The Application Note provides a newer version which solves the problem. Microsoft Mail version 3.2 incorporates the change.