User’s Guide — LinkFixer Advanced

Introduction

LinkFixer Advanced can provide a huge benefit when migrating data out of Novell NetWare volumes. There are, however, some specific steps that must be taken, and some guidelines that must be followed, in order to make the process go smoothly.

What Will Not Work

We recommend that you not attempt to run any LinkFixer Advanced process on files located on a NetWare volume.

There is a well-known and widely-discussed issue on Novell (and other) forums that describe an issue that occurs when attempting to process files on NetWare volumes. The mapped drive connection between Windows and the NetWare volume spontaneously and intermittently fails. This leads LinkFixer Advanced to see the Novell location as inaccessible.

The following link points to one of several related topics on the Novell forums: https://forums.novell.com/showthread.php/437666-NClient-2SP1-IR6-Drive-Mapping-Disconnects. Participants on the forums report trying various updates for NetWare, and other several other attempted solutions, without achieving any consistent success.

This, and other issues with NetWare, leads us to recommend only the following procedures when using LinkFixer Advanced with NetWare.

What Does Work

Move (or copy) your files out of NetWare and into Windows before you process any files or links using LinkFixer Advanced.

Most links that point to child files located on the NetWare volume will be broken when the files are moved from NetWare to Windows. But, these broken links can be easily fixed, usually in a single step, using the LinkFixer Advanced Modify Links process. After the links are repaired and working in Windows, any of the other LinkFixer Advanced processes can then be used to protect, preserve, restructure or further migrate your files and links in the Windows environment.

Specific Steps

Move Your Files to Windows

You can use any tool you choose to move (or copy) your files from NetWare to Windows.

Make a simple, straight-across move. For example, let’s say your NetWare volume is mapped as N:\ and your Windows share is mapped as W:\ on the machine that is running LinkFixer Advanced. The simplest method would be to simply move (or copy) N:\*.* to W:\*.*.

If you have only a few simple changes that you want to apply during the migration, so that the folders in Windows have different names than they had in Novell, that’s okay too. Just be sure to make a complete list of the changes. This will allow you to make a simple set of rename rules, so that the LinkFixer Advanced Modify Links process can make the corresponding changes in the links.

Run the Modify Links Process

After the files are all in Windows, run the LinkFixer Advanced Modify Links process on them. Create one or more Rename Rules that reflect the way (or ways) that the files were moved from NetWare to Windows. For example, you might have a rule that changes N:\Accounting\ to W:\Departments\Accounting\. In the simplest example, in the previous paragraph above, you might only need one rename rule that changes every link containing N:\ to W:\. Or, if your links in NetWare were formatted as UNC paths, your rename rule might contain instructions to change every instance of \\NetWareVolume\Folder to \\WindowsServer\Share.

The end result of the Modify Links process will be that the links that were previously working in NetWare will again be working in Windows.

Run Other LinkFixer Advanced Processes, as Needed

After the Modify Links process has fixed the links that were broken by the move from NetWare to Windows, any of the other LinkFixer Advanced processes can be used on the files and links. For example, if your migration includes extensive restructuring of your folder structure, you can use the LinkFixer Advanced Inoculate process to prepare the links before restructuring the folders, and the Cure process to fix the links after the files are in their eventual final location. In this case, you would use the following sequence of steps:

• Move the files from NetWare to Windows.
• Use the Modify Links process to get the links working again in Windows.
• Inoculate the working links in Windows.
• Restructure your folders and files to any desired configuration.
• Cure the links in the parent file in their new locations.

Summary

The process of migrating files from NetWare to Windows using LinkFixer Advanced involves only one additional step — the use of the Modify Links process on the files after they have been moved to Windows. (You will need to move or copy the files from NetWare to Windows at some point anyway, so that doesn’t count as an additional step.) After the files are in the Windows environment, and the links have been restored to working order by the Modify Links process, the files can then be restructured, renamed, moved into SharePoint or OpenText, or added to a distributed file system (DFS). The steps and processes for performing any further changes to the file structure or the links are described elsewhere in this User’s guide.

By following the simple steps given above, LinkFixer Advanced can preserve your links when you migrate files out of NetWare.