[jen147]

Back in the day... on an old Gateway 2000, win 95, we had Microsoft Bob, and in it was a program called Letter Writer. There I kept a journal of the first few years of my Son's life. We successfully transferred MS Bob to this computer, win XP, but last month did a System Recovery (long story, did it on advise from HP support tech that didn't tell us when we did it we'd lose all our new stuff ) anyway, as you can guess MS Bob is now refusing to open. The warnings I get are:

"File Error -- Cannot find UTOPIA.DLL" and "Can't run 16-bit Windows program. Cannot find file C:\MSBOB\HOME\HOME.EXE Check to ensure the path and filename are correct and that all required libraries are available."

Today I was in Windows Explorer and I saw the file MSBob there, I clicked the + next to it and all the programs that were in Bob were listed including letter writer, and there were files inside of it as well... What I'm trying to say is, MSBob worked before the system recovery, and there are still remnants at least of Bob, is there anyway possible for me to retrieve that journal???????

[Advertisements]

first off....never listen to hp tech support...(idiots)....second...i assume you don't have the original machine anymore....and...third what kinds of files does this "BOB" make....as in what kind of extension?

[dsenette]

first off....never listen to hp tech support...(idiots)....second...i assume you don't have the original machine anymore....and...third what kinds of files does this "BOB" make....as in what kind of extension?

[thenotch]

Did you attempt to re-install MS Bob? If you got it to work before by installing it why not follow the same steps you did previously?

Sounds like DLL's from your system directory got obliterated by the system recovery (isn't UTOPIA.DLL a MS Plus theme file??) and the stuff that just resided on disk space remained but the executeables no longer are registered in XP's registery.

I actually I think I still have MS Bob on 3.5" disks somewhere in the house....

Edited by thenotch, 22 August 2005 - 02:48 PM.

[jen147]

first off....never listen to hp tech support...(idiots)....second...i assume you don't have the original machine anymore....and...third what kinds of files does this "BOB" make....as in what kind of extension?

Nope, don't have the old dinosaur anymore. I'm not sure what you mean by "what kind of extension?" If you mean what did it do... just about anything. It was similar to MS Works + Quicken on an elementary level. There was a Calendar, Checkbook, games, budget management, rooms you could decorate and design to fit your personality, etc... oh yea, and of course the Letter Writer .

[dsenette]

file extension....like .exe .doc and what not

[jen147]

Did you attempt to re-install MS Bob? If you got it to work before by installing it why not follow the same steps you did previously?

Sounds like DLL's from your system directory got obliterated by the system recovery (isn't UTOPIA.DLL a MS Plus theme file??) and the stuff that just resided on disk space remained but the executeables no longer are registered in XP's registery.

I actually I think I still have MS Bob on 3.5" disks somewhere in the house.... 

I don't think we have the disk anymore... although like you, it could be lurking here somewhere??

So that would be my best bet then... find the disk and reinstall? and no disk, no retrieving journal?

[warriorscot]

Well find out what file extension the software saved your letters as, THEN search for sed files with that extension, then either reinstall bob OR find another piece of software that can read the files, Google is your ally here for this bit.

[jen147]

"...find out what file extension the software saved your letters as..."

How exactly do I go about doing this?

"...find another piece of software that can read the files, Google is your ally here for this bit..."

What do I google? I found someone selling MS Bob on ebay .

This journal is pretty important to me, so I may resort to buying it again, but I'd like to try out your advise if you don't mind breaking it down for me... sorry, I'm learning...

[admin]

Well a quick Google search for me showed that Bob's Letter Writer could only read and write text and RTF files. So, if you can find the file on your drive, you should be able to open it with Word, or even WordPad (a Windows ap).

Interestingly, the project manager for Bob was Melinda French -- now known as Melinda Gates, Bill's wife.

This is a problem, that's only bound to grow larger. Historians and archivists are understandably worried. We are losing the hardware and software needed to decode some of our digital past. What will it be like 100 years from now?

[warriorscot]

Yeah trying to decode old software can be difficult anyhting on a modern style pc is usually ok, but when you go back further it is difficult i cant remeber the last time i saw a REAL floppy disk drive in action.

[robinbrown]

Are 286's real enough?

Maybe I will take a pic so you can see a real floppy drive working again

Until now I didn't relize about the historic value these computers have in retrieving old information. I just wanted to play the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (complete with instruction manual) released in the 80's.

Now to find a working PC Jr <g>

~R

Well a quick Google search for me showed that Bob's Letter Writer could only read and write text and RTF files. So, if you can find the file on your drive, you should be able to open it with Word, or even WordPad (a Windows ap).

Interestingly, the project manager for Bob was Melinda French -- now known as Melinda Gates, Bill's wife.

This is a problem, that's only bound to grow larger. Historians and archivists are understandably worried. We are losing the hardware and software needed to decode some of our digital past. What will it be like 100 years from now?