| When troubleshooting a Notes client problem, a troubleshooting technique consists of performing a clean reinstall of the Notes client. A clean reinstall of the Notes client is a logical next step if running setup again does not fix the problem. This information is from TN1245159
To perform a clean reinstall of the Notes client, complete the following steps:
1. Backup key Notes files by copying them to a folder that is located outside the current Notes installation. A list of key files to save or backup can be found in the Lotus Notes Help topic “Important Notes files to save or backup.” For your convenience, this list is repeated below.
2. Uninstall Notes using the Add or Remove Programs utility (to remove Program files and the Registry entries).
3. Delete the Notes folder and all folders within it (to remove Notes data files).
4. Reinstall the Notes client.
5. Replace key Notes files (from Step 1) to their original location.
Additional Information
When Notes is uninstalled using Add/Remove programs in Control Panel, these things happen:
- Notes program files (that have not been modified since install) are removed from the Notes directory.
- The Notes entries in the Windows Registry are removed.
The Notes folder, the data directory, and all files modified after the install (such as those created or modified during Setup or subsequently by a user) remain on the system. The goal of performing a clean reinstall is to remove any ambiguity about whether a file from the original install is causing a problem. Therefore, you must be absolutely thorough when performing a clean reinstall. For this reason, the removal of any leftover files is required.
Copy of Help topic: “Important Notes files to save or backup”
The following is a list of Notes files that you may want to save or backup in case you ever need to uninstall Notes and then reinstall it at another time.
Note You may not have all of these files.
| File name
| Location (directory)
| Comments
|
| BOOKMARK.NSF
| NotesData
| Contains your saved bookmarks and Welcome Page information.
|
| BUSYTIME.NSF
| NotesData
| Contains your local free time information.
|
| DESKTOP6.NDK
| NotesData
| This is your Workspace that maps to your bookmarks.
|
| HEADLINE.NSF
| NotesData
| Contains your Database Subscriptions information.
|
| INSTALL.LOG
| Notes
| Contains the configuration information based on the options available when you install Notes. This file is used for comparison when you upgrade to new versions of Notes.
|
| INTERNET.NSF
| NotesData
| Contains information from your newsgroup subscriptions (NNTP).
|
| NAMES.NSF
| NotesData
| Contains your contacts, connections, locations, and Personal Address Book information.
|
| NOTES.INI
| Notes
| Contains the information you provide when you set up Notes, including the options you select in User Preferences. May also contain information created by your administrator. This file gets deleted when you uninstall Notes.
|
| PERWEB.NSF
| NotesData
| This is your Personal Web Navigator database that contains Web browser information.
|
| USER.DIC
| NotesData
| Contains all of the words you have added to your personal dictionary through the “Add to Dictionary” option in the Spell Checker.
|
| *.NSF (Local databases that you created or modified are stored in the Data directory.)
| NotesData
| Local databases that you created or modified are stored in the Data directory.
|
.NSF
(local replica of your mail file, if you have one)
Note: by default, this file follows a ‘first initial_first seven letters of last name’
convention, but it could be named differently.
NotesDataMail
Note: this is the default directory — file could be placed elsewhere.
| Contains your Mail, Calendar, and To Do list. This only shows up in the Data directory if you have a local replica of your Mail file.
|
.NSF
(local archive of your mail file, if you have one)
Note: by default, this file follows the same naming convention above, but prefixes the name with a_ — but it could be named differently.
Example: a_jdoe.nsf
NotesDataArchive
Note: this is the default directory — file could be placed elsewhere
| Contains archived mail.
|
| *.ID
| NotesData
| Local ID files. | | |
|
