diff --git a/collects/sirmail/doc.txt b/collects/sirmail/doc.txt
index e455799c93..4aa3409e41 100644
--- a/collects/sirmail/doc.txt
+++ b/collects/sirmail/doc.txt
@@ -126,3 +126,8 @@ entry is a list of at least two elements:
 The overriding-options feature was a quick hack for what I needed, and
 it should be replaced eventually. There's a lot of duplication of
 information in the current format.
+
+
+For an individual folder, if your "mailbox" file gets corrupted, you
+can run the "recover.ss" script with the mail folder's directory as
+the current directory.
diff --git a/collects/sirmail/recover.ss b/collects/sirmail/recover.ss
index d0f28401c5..e9629681f2 100644
--- a/collects/sirmail/recover.ss
+++ b/collects/sirmail/recover.ss
@@ -3,8 +3,9 @@
 	 (lib "head.ss" "net"))
 
 (define msgs
-  (sort (filter (lambda (x) (regexp-match "^[0-9]*$" x)) (directory-list))
-        (lambda (a b) (< (string->number a) (string->number b)))))
+  (sort (filter (lambda (x) (regexp-match #rx"^[0-9]*$" (path->string x))) (directory-list))
+        (lambda (a b) (< (string->number (path->string a))
+			 (string->number (path->string b))))))
 
 (define mailbox
   (let loop ([msgs msgs][p 1])
@@ -15,7 +16,7 @@
 	  (let ([header (with-input-from-file msg
 		     (lambda () (read-string (file-size msg))))])
 	    (cons (list
-		   (string->number msg)
+		   (string->number (path->string msg))
 		   p
 		   (file-exists? (format "~abody" msg))
 		   (extract-field "From" header)