Pappion,

1: You replied to me and not the OP.

2: The OP stated that there were no bak files in the Recycle Bin, which
would lead me to believe that the latest updates were not installed.

3: If there were bak files in the Recycle Bin, they are /very/ easy to
restore, and I doubt spending $35:00 to contact MS Tech Support would make
it any easier to do.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
~IB-CA~

"Pappion" wrote in message
...
In your case, it would be far easier for you to phone the MS OE Support
toll-free number. They'll go through it with you, and in fact, do it for
you, if you'll let the tech. take over your computer for a while. Its
quick, and easy, and you'll learn a great deal. I'm blind, so following
involved instructions was passé.

Just remember this: Go to File/Offline in OE before deleting messages, NG
Posts, and compacting your folders. They are always going to be copied to
your Recycle Bin. You can then delete them, if all goes well...if for some
reason, your power goes off, or the compacting process is interrupted,
they'll be backed up in the Recycle Bin.

BUT, to get them back into your OE Identity, is not as simple. After my
Screen Reader program read hours of info on the MS site, I gave up and
called 1/800/MICROSOFT, and the person who answered said it was not his
area, but he'd get me a technologist, because the new versions of OE 6.00+
are different, now.

I couldn't find the great instructions I was given in this NG, by Steve,
but I'll post his final one next, for you.
"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message
...
Visit Windows Updates to prevent having to use a third party tool to
recover messages in the future.

The two most common reasons for what you describe is disruption of the
compacting process, (never touch anything until it's finished), or
bloated folders. More on that below.

Why does OE insist on compacting folders when I close it?:
http://www.insideoe.com/faqs/why.htm#compact

Why Mail Disappears:
http://www.insideoe.com/problems/bugs.htm#mailgone

About File Corruption:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/...orruption.mspx

Recovery tools:

DBXpress run in Extract From Disk Mode is the best chance to recover
messages:
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx

And see:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#4

A general warning if you don't want to lose your messages in the futu

Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become
corrupted. Create your own user defined folders for storing mail and move
your mail to them. Empty Deleted Items folder regularly. Keep user
created folders under 100MB, and Default folders as empty as is feasible.

And backup often.

Backup and Resto

http://www.insideoutlookexpress.com/backup/

http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx

And this good one click backup program.

Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB):

http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
~IB-CA~

"auntof3" wrote in message
...

I'm using Windows XP, but do not have .bak copies in the Recycle bin.

I can see where there are .dbx files stored in a folder, but I can't
read those files. Is there a program that I can use to read/access
them? I saw another suggestion to Import the message files, but that
didn't work either when I followed the steps.

I'm not the most computer literate person, so as many steps as you can
give me would be great.

Thanks!


--
auntof3
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