Start by backing up everything in each identity:

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

Then compact all folders in each identity:

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

See where that takes you. You may have to choose one identity, or create a
new one and then import the messages from the others, or use the restore
function in the Backup program.

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.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS MVP - Outlook Express
~IB-CA~



"Frank Dreyfus" wrote in message
8.16...
Hi,

All of a sudden, OE opened showing only old messages (2000, 2001).

After a lot of head scratching I stumbled on File/Identities (which I
never knew existed).

The current identity (the one with the old messages) was "main identity"
but one of the others (there were a total of four) had the recent
messages.

Problem is that when I select this identity I can't create new messages
or reply. I get messages like:

- One or more parts of this message could not be displayed. (Even when
there's nothing to display, like when I'm trying to write a new e-mail.)

or

- There was an error opening this message. There is not enough memory.

And nothing is showing under the line, where I can usually preview
messages.

What the heck happened?

BTW I have 512mb RAM so I don't think that's a problem but OTOH I have
tons of messages in my Inbox. I rarely delete.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Frank