huge site, new structure: redirects?

[drewfioravanti]

I am in the process of redesigning a site that has over 500 pages, I am not sure of the exact number. The site is really old (created in the late 90’s I think, never redesigned) and has 3 main sections and goes from there. As new content was added to the site, it just got stuffed into one of the 3 main sections where it fit. Some pages are .html and some are .asp. The site does not use php, nor will it.
Now I am redesigning the layout and the navigational structure. Obviously, the pages that are there now won’t really exist once the new design goes live.

My question is what is the best way to create redirects? I can’t realistically create them for every page, can I? That would take a long time. I don’t even know how many pages there are, or their addresses. (I can find out, it will just take time)

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[shalom_m]

Too much input!
Too little useful information!
The mind boggles,
I do not compute.

[SurfPark]

Do not make redirects for every page. Have your 404 error page push the user to the main page of the site. I know it will create broken links, but you need a way to push people towards your new navigation.

[Drazan]

Use .htaccess to redirect using the 404 error page or if there's a few important pages that have much traffic then you can redirect those individually.

[drewfioravanti]

I guess that is the easiest way...creating a 404 redirect for general pages and a direct redirect (if that makes sense) for the more important pages.

If I create a htaccess 404 redirect, will that automatically redirect every page or can I still use "direct redirects" for some pages?

also, has anyone ever used this mod_rewrite module? I found some information about it, but I have never used it myself.