Need to remove old forum from Google cache

old URL no longer exists

[wmw99]

I have an off site messages board that's hosted on a message board site (not free). I use noindex, nofollow and noarchive meta tags and new messages are not archived on google.

However, old forum pages that were deleted between 2001 (!) and 2004 and no longer exist on the message board server are still archived on Google's cache - hundreds of pages, thousands of messages. I've been asked by members to remove them.

The problem is that the message board host relocated servers in 2004 and the URL for our message board had changed. The old board (old URL) no longer exists.

I've tried Google's automatic URL removal system - "Remove using meta tags". No luck, because Google "could not detect any meta tags on that page." That's because I can't add meta tags to pages that no longer exist.

I tried the "Remove an outdated link" option, it worked for a few pages but not others because, according to Google, "That page appears to still be on the web," even though when I clicked the link for the current page I got a "no longer exists" error from the message board server.

I contacted customer support and they said to contact Google. I contacted Google and was told that they're only able to remove pages from their index that return "traditional 404 errors".

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.