OK, since this seems to be one of the more popular questions to ask these days, here goes.

Let's say your computer crashed, or your hard drive died, or some mean person just plain deleted your ICQ files. Now you want your ICQ back; not just any ICQ though, you want your old number back, 'cause you're on a lot of people's lists.

Got a pen handy?

1. Download ICQ (ONLY from a link on the ICQ website).
2. Install ICQ.
3. When the registration wizard comes up, just follow the instructions.
4. When it prompts for your information, enter your old ICQ number and password.
5. It will find your old account and you can be off and running.

Okay, now that you have your old ICQ number back, you want your old contact list back right? Well, there's some bad news. Unless you made a backup copy of your old list, you're going to have to start from scratch. If you did make a backup, it's pretty simple:

• For ICQ98a users:
  1. Find your backup copy of your old "DB" folder.
  2. Open Windows Explorer.
  3. Browse through until you find your "ICQ" folder.
  4. Copy your old "DB" folder into the "ICQ" folder.
  5. You will get a dialog box asking you if you want to replace the existing files.
  6. Press the "Yes" button.
  7. Launch ICQ. Your list should be back.

• For ICQ99a users:
  1. Follow the same procedure as above but you will be copying your "NewDB" folder.
  2. You might have to run the "ICQ Database Converter" that comes with ICQ if there are any problems with your list.

• After upgrading from ICQ98a to ICQ99a:
  1. Install ICQ99a right into the folder where ICQ98a is. (It should be C:\Program Files\ICQ unless you changed the default setting)
  2. Run the ICQ Database Converter. (If you just installed ICQ99a after a crash and you had 98a previously, just copy your backup DB folder into the ICQ folder before running the database converter)
  3. It will find your old database and convert it to 99a format.

How do you make a backup of my contact list so this won't happen to you again? It's not hard.

1. Find a floppy disk, zip disk, superdisk or any other storage medium that won't be affected if your hard drive decides it doesn't want to play any more.
2. Open Windows Explorer.
3. Browse through until you find the "ICQ" folder. (It's probably in the "Program Files" folder)
4. In the ICQ folder there will be a "DB" folder (or "NewDB" for you ICQ99a users)
5. Copy this folder to the aforementioned storage medium. (If the folder is too big to fit on a floppy disk, run ICQ and delete all the entries in the history section of your address book. Received Messages, Sent Messages, Chat's, etc.)
6. Keep this in a safe place. Don't forget where that safe place is.

Back

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws