Pappion:

Please excuse the HTML post, but

The OP does /not/ have .bak files in the Recycle Bin!
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
~IB-CA~

"Pappion" wrote in message ...
This was Steve's final instructions--again the only reason I couldn't follow
them was due to my lack of vision, and dictating the instructions into my
computer is solely dependent upon my seeing everything clearly (other than
for pure dictation). Copy this and Bruce's pointers, too, by and hitting
File then "Save As," and make a folder for OE Operations, etc. I have a
"Computer" Folder in My Documents, then a sub-folder like "OE Support". Be
sure to "suspend" or close your anti-virus program, and any Firewalls you
have, and work "Off Line (click on File, then look down for "Work Offline"
and click that--double-check it to be sure the check is there) in OE. BTW I
was also told to keep my Sent Folder to a minimum which I was NOT doing
previously. Here ya go:

I think all your messages are likely there, but you are going to have to do
a bit of searching and stuff to get them back.

OE most likely lost the principal Identity you were using, which is why the
message rules are toast, and can't find the folders. Since you have bak
files in the Recycle bin, then you likely can recover the messages.

First thing to do is to make sure you have AVG not set to scan email. If it
is, then uninstall it and reinstall it with that option disabled.

Then in OE go to File | Identities and set up a new Identity so you can
start over. Switch to that Identity and set up your mail and news accounts.
Then close OE.

Now its going to get a bit tricky. First make sure you can see dbx files by
going to Tools | Folder Options | View in Windows Explorer and then uncheck
the option to hide extensions for known file types and also enable showing
hidden files and folders. That should let you find dbx files. Then run a
search of the entire drive for *.dbx (and use the Advanced Search Options to
include searching for hidden files), and you should have at least 2
directories (maybe more), one of which is the current directory for the new
Identity you just made (check the file dates), and the other will the
directory of the lost messages, and OE may have set up another directory as
well, so you can check the file names and sizes as well to determine where
the lost messages are.

Once you find those directories, then copy all the files in the "lost"
message directory to another for backup purposes. Then go to the Recycle
bin and restore the bak files. This should put the old dbx files (the ones
prior to the compaction start) into that "lost" message directory. See if
that happens. If so, then open OE and in the new Identity go to File |
Import | Messages and point to the "lost" message directory.

See if that will then import the old messages. If it doesn't, then you can
try manually importing the dbx files via the method in the last paragraph
under OE on this page: www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx

If you have a backup of the registry keys for OE, you can restore that to
attempt to get the message rules back, but you'd have to edit the Identity
number in the backed up file to match that of the new identity. Otherwise
you'll just have to set up the rules again.

Anyway, see if that helps recover them.

cheers,

steve
"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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