Start by creating a local folder of your own and moving the messages there.
If that folder causes OE to Hang, you will have to either get rid of the
messages, or create yet another folder and move messages there, say in
groups of about 20 at a time until you narrow it down and find the offending
message.

General precautions for Outlook Express:

Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become
corrupt. 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.

After you are done, follow up by compacting your folders manually while
working *offline* and do it often.

Click on Outlook Express at the top of the folder tree so no folders are
open. Then: File | Work Offline (or double click Working Online in the
Status Bar). File | Folder | Compact all folders. Don't touch anything until
the compacting is completed.

Turn off e-mail scanning in your anti-virus program. It is a redundant layer
of protection that eats up CPUs and causes a multitude of problems such as
time-outs and account setting changes. Your up-to-date A/V program will
continue to protect you sufficiently. For more, see:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3

In Tools | Options | Maintenance: Uncheck Compact messages in background and
leave it unchecked. {N/A if running XP/SP2}.

And backup often.

Backup & Resto
http://www.insideoutlookexpress.com/backup/

This is a great two click program:

Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB)
http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA

"Neil" wrote in message
et...
I recently opened Outlook Express 6 on my XP machine, and OE just
continually showed the hourglass. I couldn't use any of the functions or do
anything except crash out of it with Ctrl+Alt+Del.

I went into the OE store directory and moved Inbox.dbx to another location
and reopened OE. OE opened fine, no hourglass, and everything was fine.
It, of course, showed an empty Inbox, which it created to replace the
missing one. I then put Inbox.dbx back into the store directory
(overwriting the one that OE had just created), and OE hung again.

So it seems that either my Inbox file is corrupted, or there's a file in
there that's causing this problem. What can I do? Is there a way to fix
this file so that I can get at the messages that are in it?

Thanks for any assistance!

Neil