Parsons Address Book, Have you all run away screaming yet? Options

[denno]

Hi again
Here's the problem.
I used to have Parsons Address Book 3.0 on a laptop. Used to be a good boy and keep backups, too.
Eventually the laptop went down.
[I do have a Parsons installation disk. Of course can't find it right now. Time to clean up my office? Anyhow, it's only one disk, not sure that's complete. Not sure if I can install it on XP].

Once in awhile you can buy a copy of Parsons on eBay. But it is also incorporated in Print Shop 23.1. OK, so I open up that version of Parsons, and go to Open, and put one of the floppies in the drive.

I get one of about 3 messages:
Disk not formatted.
Incorrect file format
or:
File Error
cannot find PTSAABDB.DLL

I have seen this last message complained about in several online posts when I was searching for Parsons threads and forums
Have not seen anyone solve the missing file problem.

There are "copies" --- .AB2 and "backups," which I think are .bak
I may have examples of both. I surely have one floppy with a 659K file identified as Adbook Document, which ought to be a copy.

Seems one fix would be to locate this missing .dll and provide it to the program. [Maybe it is available in an original copy -- even mine -- of Parsons. Couldn't find it loose on the Net, but I'm no paragon].
Another would be to convert the file into a CSV. Apparently one can export in that form from Parsons; I dunno about "cracking" the file with, like, notepad or whatever.

Is this the sort of "other software" problem someone can help me with?

Thanks,
denno

[Doug]

Yes. This is an OK place to post this topic.

Please be more clear about your goal.

Possible goals:
--Continue using Parsons Address Book <-- not recommended
--Export address book to cvs file for use with other email client
--Retrieve the information in printed form
--Other?

As the utility seems to be discontinued, your options may be limited.
http://www.techxplore.net/2009/05/06/conve...t-address-book/
And particularly because the laptop "went down".

Do you know what the problem was with the Laptop?

More than likely, the laptop's Hard Drive is still functional, but you man not be able to access the information because of some othe failure of the laptop.

Have you considered removing the laptop Hard Drive and connecting it via USP - IDE adapter?

This inexpensive device may help with retrieving the "AB2" file-extension information directly.

If you do have a usable installation of Parsons Address Book or Ultimate Mail Manager on a working machine, you may be able to us it to access your old information from the old Hard Drive, and convert it to a more recent and supported form.

Keep us posted, with your questions or with your solution if you find a fix.

Best Regards

[paws]

denno,
also take a look here:
http://www.fileextensionab2.com/
Regards
paws

[denno]

Thanks for your reply.

The "object" is to get my address book back. Any readable form will do, though it'd be awfully nice if I could just restore it to the new version of Parsons.

Hence: can anyone help with finding the missing .dll file? (I read that there may be others as well).

Or can someone tell me how to open the backup files I have as CSVs?

The hard drive has been declared DEAD DEAD DEAD. Not a solution except for maybe forensic recovery.

I am still, in the meanwhile, looking for my original installation disk, which I am now told may indeed be a one-disk install. Then I can play with that, perhaps or perhaps not install it on my current computer, perhaps find the missing files. Then I'd need help getting them available to the new version of Parsons that I have on my computer as part of Print Shop.

[denno]

Just looked @ the links above, thanks.
Paws , hi, that link explains maybe what is wrong, but no fix.
The other link refers to people getting AB2 into CSV by "trial and error." What would I try?
Gracias,
denno

[paws]

Hi denno
Di you try opening the files using various applications?
Start with notepad and be prepared to scroll and clean up text
Regards
paws

[denno]

I'll have a go at that tonight, thanks.
notepad, open office (couple aps), wordpad....what else?

[paws]

Hi denno
Those should be enough to go on with......
its surprising what notepad will open....( same goes for Word) but there's likely to be a lot of dross in it that will need editing and formatting...... if you can get it edited so that you can open it in Access or Excel then you are home and dry...
Otherwise its getting the Parsons software to work.....
Regards
paws

[paws]

Hi denno,
if you go down the route of trying to get the software to work then try this:

1 Make sure you have file extensions/suffixes shown on your computer.....
(My Computer>Tools>Folderoptions>View>clear the box for "Hide extensions for known file types">OK)

2 Close the open window and now copy the .ab2 file(s) from floppy to your "My Documents" folder. (do not omit this stage!) they must be on your hard drive and somewhere you can find them easily!

3 Next try this:

4. Open Print Shop 23

5. Select 'Edit Address Book' (open the Address Book Application)

6. Select File>Open in the Address Book Program's menu bar

7. it should open to the Documents folder. If you did not place the *.ab2 file in that folder, navigate to the location of the *.ab2 file

8. Select that *.ab2 file, then click on 'Open'

See if this does the trick.

I am afraid you may be in for a bit of trial and error.....
You mentioned your old hard drive was dead dead dead...... Have you checked it yourself....?. run the disc manufacturer's utility on it? and tried to open it up with a live Linux distro ? ( Linux Puppy is a good one to try)
available from here:
http://puppylinux.org/main/Download%20Latest%20Release.htm
Regards
paws

This post has been edited by paws: Jan 17 2012, 03:21 PM

Reason for edit: typos

[denno]

Naw, up came "cannot find PTSAABDB.DLL"
That's the stopper every time.

I will mess with notepad, etc., tho' I think I've tried that before, too.

Thanks,
denno

[denno]

Well, now. Notepad said it was shutting down so something wouldn't activate. Wordpad read the file out, with a LOT of gibberish. Open Office's equivalent of Word produced the AB2 as an 871 page text file (most pages just a little text). Same gibberish, but more uniform gibberish so the addresses and so forth stand out better. I am not sure all of it is decipherable, but some is.

I can dig a lot of old information out of this, thank you! And I have lived without those thousand notations for 3 years or so, so I bet they are not nearly all essential.

I'd still love to plug the whole thing into Parsons. Guess I will see what I can do when my old installation disk surfaces again.

Thanks to all, and I'll live with this result for the time being.

Denno

[paws]

Hi denno, Glad you got a result of sorts...
I do this professionally in my workshop.... (converting old and no longer used software files) into something usuable so I know how time consuming it can be.... However it pays well!

I find that with the use of cut and paste ( from a copy!) its possible to do a fair job and then put it into a comma separated value file(.csv) readable by Excel etc...
Regards
paws